


Mors Ultra Fidem

by Strifes_Lady



Series: Familia Ante Omnia Series [3]
Category: Bleach, Harry Potter - Fandom, Naruto
Genre: AU/AR, F/M, M/M, Major Crossover, Mpreg, Multi, Other, Puppet Sex (warning is for Sasori only), Rope Bondage, some Sexual scenes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:35:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 253,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strifes_Lady/pseuds/Strifes_Lady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Mors Amicus in Uiam Uitae. Kushina begins her Seventh and final year at Hogwarts while her son Naruto begins his Ninja career! Can she complete her mission for the King and return to her son for good or will she fail to complete it this year. Can Naruto become a Chuunin? Care to join us and find out... Will Sakumo ever come home? And will the Village Hidden in the Leaves ever discover that the Uchiha clan is alive and well...</p><p>Come join us and find out!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Warning/Disclaimer Page!

 

 

**Disclaimer: I do not own nor believe I own these particular worlds, I just like playing in them. Harry Potter and all other Characters from said realm are owned by J.K. Rowling. Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto while Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo. All three are wonderful authors and I would never dream to usurp their authority, I just like playing in their sandboxes. If my story resembles another than that is not intentional as I began to write this series about two years ago but was determined to complete the first story before posting it to any site.**

**Mors Ultra Fidem/Loyalty Beyond Death**

BY: Strifes_Lady

Warnings: **Lets see how many I can fit… Slash, Het, Yuri, Gender-Bending of main Characters, Crossover with three fandoms, AU's of all three Fandoms, and finally… Mpreg. There you are duly warned, now don't come crying to me about one of these warnings cause I won't listen.** **If you don't like any of this I'm not holding a gun to your head an making you read it, if you don't like it then just don't read it!**

* * *

Pairings: Warning there is a long list ahead with spoilers for the fanfic read at your own risk… Separated now by Fandom.

**Harry Potter Pairings:**

_FemHarry/Kisuke Urahara,_

_James Potter/Remus Lupin,_

_Sirius Black/Severus Snape,_

_Molly Weasley/Arthur Weasley,_

_Bill Weasley/Fleur Delacour,_

_Theodore 'Ted' Tonks/Andromeda Tonks,_

_Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom,_

_Neville Longbottom/Hannah Abbott,_

_Lee Jordan/Theodore Nott._

* * *

**Naruto Pairings: (I'll add these as they are confirmed but not before then unless I've been obvious about it such as the first pairing on the list, or if they are canon, or if I've mentioned that they are in a relationship.)**

_Kakashi Hatake/Iruka Umino_

_Asuma Sarutobi/Kurenai Yuhi_

_Raido Namiashi/Genma Shianui_

_Izumo Kamizuki/Kotetsu Hagane_

_Hyate Gekko/Yugao Uzuki_

_Mito Uzumaki/Hashirama Senju (Isshin Kurosaki/Rabastan Lestrange)_

_Sasori/Deidara  
_

_Hidan/Kakuzu  
_

_Ibiki Morino/Zabuza Momochi  
_

_Anko/?  
_

* * *

**Bleach Pairings:**

_Ichigo Kurosaki/Byakuya Kuchiki,_

_Yoruichi/Soifon,_

_Shuhei Hisagi/Kensei Murguruma,_

_Shunsui Kyoraku/Sado 'Chad' Yasutora,_

_Gin Ichimaru/ Rangiku Masumoto,_

_Hanataro Yamada/Ganju Shiba,_

_Shinji Hirako/Hiyori Sarugaki,_

_Kiyone Kotetsu/Sentaro Kotsubaki,_

_Rose Otoribashi/Love Aikawa,_

_Toshiro Hitsugaya/ Karin Kurosaki,_

_Lisa Yadomaru/Mashiro Kuna,_

_Renji Abari/Ulquiorra Schiffer,_

_Uryu Ishida/Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez,_

_Yazu Kurosaki/Yachiru K._

* * *

**Mixed Pairings:**

_Rukia Kuchiki/Ron Weasley,_

_Hermione Granger/Kenpachi Zaraki,_

_Jushiro Ukitake/Nymphadora Tonks,_

_Fred and George Weasley/Yumichika Ayasegawa,_

_Percy Weasley/Isane Kotetsu,_

_Ginny Weasley/Tetsuzaemon Iba,_

_Kingsley Shacklebolt/Nanao Isa,_

_Blaise Zabini/Orihime Inoue_

_Rodolphus Lestrange/Shisui Uchiha (Tobirama Senju/Izuna Uchiha.)_

* * *

Notes:

This does make the world of Naruto, Bleach and Harry Potter do a bit of a one eighty. My Hermione is not as enthusiastic over the freedom of house elves, as she had spoken directly to several house elves with Kushina's encouragement. My Ron is less insecure and more sure of himself, while Neville has more confidence thanks to the return of his parents. He is still somewhat shy and unsure of himself but that is fading thanks to his mother and father's encouragement. I will be writing three books to this series, hopefully no more than that. ^_\ Kushina isn't perfect far from it in-fact, she has her flaws...she just hides them very well. (P.S. The potions used in this story that you don't recognize, do not under any circumstances try to make them as they are not real. Thank you.) If anyone wants to write a lemon based on this story go ahead but do give me a link to it. And point anyone in the way of the fic, thank you. (P.P.S. Due to a particular plan of mine and some information I recently came across I've changed a jutsu to better work for my story. Which one it is you'll find out later on but lets just say that a relative of Naruto's realized that someone could use their own jutsu against them if they didn't make precautions.)

* * *

Line Break Symbols

Time Skip: %%%%%%%%%%%

Scene Change: #################

Documents/Files: +++++++++++++++++++

Flashback: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

And now without further ado, On with the fic!


	2. Chapter One: Of Tests and Tales

 

 

**Chapter One: Of Tests and Tales**

* * *

 

After the three had leapt away from the open area around Kakashi, Naruto sought out Sasuke and said, "I know the purpose of this test and how to pass it." He had leaned against a tree as he had stated that, he was wearing the same outfit as the day before only this time the colors for the wrappings were switched to the color of the previous day's pants and visa versa for his clothing.

The dark haired boy gave his blond companion an odd look before he too leaned against a tree trunk, this one was across from Naruto's, as he said, "and how is that?"

Naruto smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest, he then brought the sole of his right sandal up to rest on the trunk as he said, "the main purpose of the Bell Test is to allow the tester to find out how well a group of people function as a team. Three Genin can take out a high level Jounin, but the Jounin has to underestimate the Genin and so long as the Genin work together. In other words, Sasuke, we need to work as a team to get those bells away from Kakashi-Sensei," Naruto ended by shoving away from the trunk as he uncrossed his arms.

Sasuke thought for several moments before he took a deep breath through his nose and let it out slowly as he looked up at the canopy before he said, "you're right. I rather doubt the academy would put together three man teams just to have one Genin from each team return to the academy. So either the entire team passes or none of the Genin pass," the dark eyed boy nodded sharply as he pushed away from the tree and walked away. He then looked over his shoulder with a smirk as he said, "shall we go find Sakura and convince her that it would be better to work together to defeat our sensei."

Five minutes later, Naruto had finished laying out the plan he had come up with on the way to find Sakura, since Sasuke had already agreed to go along with Naruto's plan Sakura had agreed to go along with it as well. As Naruto's clones were getting into position, Sakura, who was kneeling on the right side of the blond while Sasuke was on the left, turned to him and asked, "why did you stop wearing your old outfit?"

"You mean besides the fact that it's the color of 'kill me now' orange," he asked before he said, "two reasons really. Reason number 1: these," he gestured to his clothes, "are two of the colors that are trademarks of my clan. Reason number 2: someone told me that it's a foolish mistake to wear something that made me vulnerable to an enemy. They also told me that if I couldn't move around in it easily or if it could give away my position to an enemy then I shouldn't be wearing it no matter how much I like the outfit." Before Sakura could say anything about his words, Naruto's head shot up and he hissed out, not literally since there were currently no snakes around to talk to, "the clones are in position. Get ready to move on my mark!"

Although both of his teammates were curious about who had told him that about his clothes they turned to the current mission at hand, 'Retrieve the Bells!' As planned, Naruto's clones attacked Kakashi first en masse, followed shortly by Sasuke and Sakura. While the Jounin was occupied by his clones and teammates, Naruto had grabbed the two bells as well as the gaudy orange book that their Sensei had been reading, inwardly Naruto wondered what was so fascinating about the book since his Ryuu-Okasan also read it. Naruto had made three clones, two had henged into the bells while the third had henged into the book, after he had swapped the clones for the three items he had hid so he could disguise the book into a bell that looked identical to the two bells. He then dismissed the clones and stood next to his teammates as Kakashi was about to tell them that they had failed, Naruto said, "before you say anything, Sensei, you should check your belt.

Kakashi glanced down in time to see the two bells disappear in a puff of smoke, the Jounin then glanced up to see Naruto toss the bells at his teammates while holding the third in his left hand. Sasuke held up his bell and smirked as he said slowly, "obviously one of these three bells is a fake, but can you tell which one of the three bells it is?" He then got a blank look on his face before he said seriously, "either you pass all three of us or send all of us back to the academy. We're a team now and you can't change that."

Kakashi glanced between all three Genin's as she gauged their seriousness about Sasuke's statement before she sighed and said seriously while adopting a grave look on her face, "very well. You leave me no choice but too…"

'I hope Naruto was right about this,' was the thought that ran through both Sakura's and Sasuke's minds as their Sensei drew out her announcement.

"Say that you pass," Kakashi finally chirped with a grin under her mask and causing her visible eye to become an upside down U.

Naruto smirked before he dispelled the henge and the bell in his hand turned into a certain book that he tossed back to the stunned Jounin as he said, "you can drop the jutsu, Sensei, I think you've made your point."

"Mah, I guess I have," Kakashi said while rubbing the back of her head with her right hand, Sakura gave the pair a confused look while Sasuke smirked. With a small puff of smoke the silver haired woman was replaced by a silver haired man, his hair seemed to be stubbornly defying gravity. The man waved at the stunned girl as he said, "yo," before he turned his attention to Sasuke as he said, "you don't seem to be surprised about me actually being a guy."

The brunette male snorted before he said, "everyone in my clan would talk about you. Most of the clan would murmur about how terrible it was that Obito had died shortly after activating his Sharingan but at least he had passed one of his eyes to a worthy person." He then smirked as he leaned against one of the training posts before he commented idly, "that knowledge combined with Naruto being unsurprised by your name and comments made me believe that he had taught you the Oiroke no Jutsu." He tilted his head to the right slightly as his black eyes stared straight into the silver haired man's only visible eye.

Kakashi finally nodded in response to Sasuke's statements before he said, "yeah, Naruto taught the jutsu to me and another Jounin." He rubbed the back of his head again as he said with a wry tone, "it was a good thing he did because it came in handy on a mission that the pair of us had. It let us escape another country undetected and make our way to Konoha without anyone being the wiser that we were a pair of Jounins."

Naruto smirked at that before he asked, "so… What's on the agenda first for our team? I mean, we can't start doing c-ranked missions until you're confidant that we can handle them, so that leaves training and d-ranked missions." As he had spoken he had mirrored Sasuke's pose and had leaned against a training post, he had crossed his arms over his chest as he glanced at their sensei.

Kakashi had dropped down to sit on the ground with his legs crossed into a meditative pose, he had his left elbow resting on his knee and was using his fist to rest his cheek on. He then stared at them for a few moments before he said, "most astute of you Naruto, to realize that you aren't going to be doing higher ranked missions yet." Kakashi closed his eyes and thought carefully as he contemplated how to begin their training before he nodded sharply. He then opened his eye and stared at his Genin team, Sakura had followed the boy's example and was leaning against a training post in between the pair, all three were staring at their sensei expectantly.

"Alright, I've come to a decision," the man said as he rose from his position on the ground, "meet me at the Memorial Stone at seven am tomorrow. After we're done there I'll tell you how we'll be handling your training and missions. Understood?"

All three of the preteens nodded as they chorused, "understood, Kakashi-Sensei!"

The silver haired man beamed at them, once again giving them his customary eye smile, before he said, "good, I'm going to go report about you passing my test and have you marked as my team. From now on you are to be known as Team Seven or Team Kakashi depending on the situation. The Hokage wants me to train you to be the same thing my own Genin team was, so I'll be training you the same way, or as close to it, that I was trained." He then waved a cheerful goodbye as he said, "see you three tomorrow, kids," before he again disappeared in a whirl of leaves.

Sakura stared at where their sensei had been standing before she said quietly, "I wonder why he wants us to meet him at the Memorial stone and what are we are going to be doing there…"

Sasuke shoved away from the post and said while he began retrieving his weapons, "I don't know but most of my clan either spoke of him with fondness or with a great deal of respect. So I'm going to follow his orders even if they don't make a lot of sense to me," as he had spoken he bent down to pick up some Kunai. Naruto had also started helping him pick up his weapons and after a few minutes of watching the two boys Sakura joined them. After all the weapons had been retrieved from the ground the three began the tedious job of searching through them for their own weapons.

After all of them had gotten their weapons separated from the others, Naruto glanced at the sky before he said, "I don't know about you two but I'm hungry. Do either of you want to join me for some ramen," he asked as he put his weapons back into his pouch.

Sakura had bit back her first response of 'hell no,' when she realized that the blond was inviting both her and Sasuke to join him for dinner or at least a snack before dinner. Finally after a few moments to think she nodded as she put away her own weapons and said, "sure, I'm a bit hungry myself. What about you Sasuke, are you hungry," she had glanced over at her dark haired teammate as she asked the question.

Sasuke paused while he was putting way his own weapons at the inquiry and thought it over before he finally nodded in response as he said, "alright. I'll join you but if neither of you minds it, I'm going in my Oiroke no jutsu form." The dark haired boy shuddered as he said in a voice filled with loathing, "I'd rather have a meal without my fan girls attacking me."

Upon receiving assent to his stipulation for joining them, Sasuke used the jutsu and Sakura gaped then pouted over how pretty the Uchiha male had become. His hair now reached his waist while in a high ponytail while his facial features were the same as before they were now softened slightly. He, or rather she, was wearing his usual outfit minus the Uchiha symbol and his arm warmers, his headband was also gone, or rather hidden from sight.

The three Genin's then walked to Naruto's favorite Ramen stand, as they did they began talking about miscellaneous things. Which included whether or not the Oiroke no Jutsu would make the user appear to be a man or if it's user was a female if it would simply turn the girl into an older version of themselves. The three eventually decided that Naruto would teach the jutsu to Sakura and she could test it herself, if she merely turned into an older version of herself then Naruto would create a jutsu to do the opposite of the Oiroke no Jutsu for her.

**########################################################################**

While his kids were picking up their weapons, Kakashi had appeared inside of the Hokage's office, he waved at the rest of the Jounin in the room. Genma and Anko were leaning against the wall while Iruka was holding a clipboard, the scarred Chuunin was standing next to the Hokage's desk. Before Kakashi could report that his team had passed his test Asuma and Kurenai had entered the room through the door. The pair blinked in shock at seeing Kakashi in the room and assumed that he had failed yet another team despite it having the last Uchiha on it.

The Hokage puffed idly on his pipe as Asuma said around the cigarette in his mouth, "team Ten passes. I'll have to do some preliminary training before I begin missions with them however."

As Iruka marked down the passing of the team and Asuma's remark, Kurenai said cheerfully, "team eight also passes. Like Asuma-San I plan to do some preliminary training with my team before we begin missions together."

To Asuma and Kurenai's surprise the Hokage had nodded in acceptance before he glanced over at Kakashi as he asked, "and Team Seven. How did they fare with your test Kakashi," Iruka glanced at the silver haired Jounin as he wondered how Naruto had fared in Kakashi's test. Out of six teams, excluding Team Seven, none had passed the Jounin's test, whenever a teacher had complained about that the Hokage had told them that he couldn't force a Jounin to pass a test. The decision to pass a team was solely the responsibility of the Jounin selected to test them and as such not even the Hokage could order the passing of a team.

Kakashi closed his visible eye and sighed before he looked up at them with a grin as he said, "Team Seven passes, mark them down as under the instruction of Kakashi Hatake." As he turned to leave the room he commented over his shoulder, "I also plan to do some preliminary training along with discussions with them before we begin missions." He then left the room to head home, he left four stunned Jounins, a bemused Chuunin and an amused Hokage behind him as he did.

Iruka shook his head as he huffed a laugh before he wrote down Team Seven's results as well as their Jounin Sensei before he said, "it would figure that Team Seven is the seventh team he's tested as well as being the only team he's passed."

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

The next morning found Team Seven walking to the Memorial Stone, Naruto yawned as he walked, he was wearing the same type of clothes as the day before. However, his shirt was an ice blue color same with his pants, while his arm and leg wrappings were sea green in coloration. On each upper arm of his jacket was a red circle with the Uzumaki/Whirlpool spiral on it in silver thread, his coat was a charcoal grey with the same orange flame motif as the white coat. It too hung down to his knees, he only had one coat in each color with the orange flame motif along the bottom edge, and all of them were knee-length baring his pure orange one.

Sasuke ran into Naruto, not literally ran into but merely seen the other boy, the dark haired boy was wearing his usual outfit of light colored shorts with a short-sleeved dark shirt with a high collar and light colored arm warmers. Two minutes later the pair ran into Sakura, the two boys blinked at the change to her outfit compared to the day before and throughout her academy days. The pink haired girl still had her headband in the same place as before but instead of wearing her usual dress she was wearing a red shirt that resembled the upper portion of the old dress. She was wearing black shorts that stopped three inches above her knees, on her right leg she wore white wrappings that went from just above her knee to just over the bottom edge of her short's leg.

She was also wearing black leg warmers that stopped two inches below her knees, over her shorts she wore a light pink work style skirt/apron that had slits up the front and back in the middle. She was also wearing full fingered black gloves and elbow covers in the same color as her apron. She glanced at the two boys before she fell into step with them as they made their way to the stone, she had fallen into step while between the pair. To the three preteens surprise, their sensei was already at the stone and staring at it while in front of the Memorial stone sat four incense burners giving off smoke, each of the burners was putting out different fragrances. One smelt of cordite mixed with honeysuckles while another smelt like water lilies and springtime, a third smelled like a combination of the forest and rain while the last smelled like ocean mist.

All three moved forward to stand beside him and watched as he first traced two names that were next too each other before he traced another that was slightly below them before he reached upward and traced a fourth name further above the first. The three read the names in the reverse order that their sensei had traced them in. Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened at reading the first name. The four names read in order were: Obito Uchiha, Rin Nohara, Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze. Sakura bit her lower lip before she asked, "sensei, who are these people to you," she had glanced at Naruto who was tracing Kushina's name and date of death.

Kakashi huffed a sad laugh before he said while he tapped the first name, "Obito Uchiha, my teammate, he died saving Rin and I from an enemy shortly after he activated his Sharingan. My left eye had been damaged in the same battle, Obito ordered Rin who was the medic nin of our team to transplant his left eye into me to replace the eye I had lost while guarding his back." Kakashi shook his head in ironic amusement before he said, "Obito told me to consider it his gift to me for reaching Jounin rank. That eye of his has helped save my life quite a few times over the years," he rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke. "We were able to recover Obito's body later and return it to his clan," Kakashi said before he snorted in amusement.

"The clan considered me an honorary member since I held Obito's eye, according to the clan's elders, the transplant shouldn't have taken since I wasn't a blood relative. Since it did I was accepted into the clan despite not sharing blood nor by being married into it." He then tapped Rin's name as he said, "Rin Nohara, my teams medic nin. She was good at it, Obito adored her and I hope that wherever they are that they're happy, although knowing them when my time comes I'm in for a scolding from them both!"

He then turned a serious eye toward them and said, "I'm going to teach all three of you basic field medical jutsus, whichever one of you shows the aptitude for that branch will be getting lessons at the hospital." His eye flashed with sadness and resolve as he said, "I made a promise to Rin about that and I fully plan to keep my promise to her."

He then tapped the other two names and said, "as for these two, I owe them promises as well. This one is a woman I sometimes called mother," he tapped Kushina's name as he spoke, "it was mostly in jest but I did love her like a mother. I owe it to her to make sure her son is trained to the best of my abilities." Sasuke and Sakura's eyes widened as they both realized that Kushina Uzumaki was Naruto's mother and from the date of her death, she died the night that the Kyuubi attacked Konoha.

"And the man, Sensei, what about him," asked Sakura softly as she glanced between Naruto and his mothers name.

Kakashi blinked before he asked while he tilted his head to the side, "you mean you don't recognize his name?" Upon seeing all three shake their heads he sighed to himself before he muttered, "what are they teaching you kids in the academy these days if they can't even recognize his name…"

Kakashi had been forbidden to tell Naruto his fathers name but that didn't stop Kakashi from telling his Genin team what he planned to. "Minato Namikaze was known by two names," Kakashi explained to the raptly listening Genin. "He was known as both the Yellow Flash and as the Yondaime Hokage," all three pairs of eyes widened in shock as they gaped at the name of the Fourth Hokage.

As they stared at the name Kakashi said with a sad tone, "of course, to me, Rin and Obito, he was just Minato-Sensei." At that the three turned their disbelieving eyes onto their sensei and watched as he traced the name again as he said softly, "he gave us the very same test I gave you yesterday." He gestured at the stone as he said, "this is what I wanted to show you, the fallen heroes of Konoha, those who gave their lives in the service and defense of the village." He stared at all three seriously as he said, "never forget those who have passed, for all of our heroes deserve to be remembered."

They then watched as he picked up the four incense burners and sealed them away before he began to walk away from the stone, he glanced over his shoulder as he said, "come on, I have one more thing to show you three." They followed their sensei as he led them to a small secluded cemetery, in the center of the cemetery was a large mausoleum, he opened the door to it and to the surprise of the Genin there were three urns inside. Each urn had a picture in front of it, one picture held a blond haired man with blue eyes and a soft smile on his face, his face was framed by two locks of hair in front of his ears. As Naruto stared at the picture he remembered how his Ryuu-Okasan told him, 'you look just like your father minus his ear tails of course.' Another picture held a red haired woman with dancing grey eyes while on the other side of her urn sat a picture of a silver haired man with dark eyes and an enigmatic smile.

Kakashi bowed to all three pictures as he said to the three behind him, "I can't tell you the name of your father, Naruto, but you deserve to know what he looked like." Naruto gulped and stepped forward to stand next to his sensei, as he bowed to the blond picture his teammates watched as their sensei placed a stick of incense in a burner and lit it before he again bowed to the picture of the silver haired man as he said, "good day, father."

Naruto had glanced at his sensei before he asked, "why are my parents ashes sharing space with your father in your family's mausoleum?" The other two Genin also looked at their sensei curiously at Naruto's question, to the pair of them the blonds question was perfectly valid.

Kakashi laughed softly before he said, "your mother was my father's mission partner until his death when I was nine." He traced the woman's features with sad eyes as he said in a tight voice, "his death devastated her and she never told me, I didn't even find out until she had died just how much she grieved him. The third had ended up telling me how close the pair of them were, he likened them to the ocean and a shoreline," Kakashi glanced at Naruto. He then turned his attention back to the three portraits, "I later came to realize that he was a bit wrong about that. Sure your mother was like the ocean and my father the shore the ocean always came back to no matter how often it left but he forgot something."

"What was that Sensei," asked Sakura eagerly as she listened to him speaking about a woman he greatly admired.

Kakashi glanced down to see three eager gazes and the way all three Genin were listening with rapt attention. "Because as much as my father was Kushina's rock and stable ground when she was raging and lonely, the ocean can also be playful and for that she needed the wind. However both water and wind can change a landscape and make it look much different then it looked before. I never realized just how much your mother and father influenced mine until after their deaths and I found out just how well they had known my father." Kakashi tilted his head back and sighed before he murmured almost to himself, "your mother and my father had been best friends as well as mission partners, they liked to pretend to hate each other. Most people bought their act, so much so that the enemy was usually startled by their fierce defense of one another."

He then stared at them as he said softly but seriously, "I want the three of you to become that close. My father and Kushina-Okasan went into a mission mere comrades but emerged as partners for life as well as being the closest of friends." Kakashi then led the three out of the stone building and toward the same training ground as the day before. As they all sat down Kakashi said, "several Shinobi who had worked with them told me that they had been so in tune with one another, that one time, despite my father being closer Kushina had killed an enemy. When the other people there later asked my father why he hadn't killed the enemy he had simply replied, 'it was Kushina's kill not mine.' It was because they knew each other so well that he was able to predict that she wanted to kill him that allowed my father to know to leave the enemy be."

Kakashi smirked, but due to his mask none of the three could tell, as he said, "by the time Naruto's mother and my father died they were quite feared by the enemies of Konoha. No one in the village quite knows just how the pair of them gained the monikers of the 'White Fang' and the 'Crimson Blade' but most still know the pair by those names rather than their birth names."

The three Genin glanced at each other and silently resolved that one day the three of them would be more well known than the Sannin, the White Fang, the Crimson Blade and the Yellow Flash combined. However, before that day could come they would first have to train and become stronger than they currently were.

After another hour of telling the three Genin stories about Naruto's parents, Kakashi's father and his sensei as well as stories of his teammates, Kakashi said, "meet me here everyday starting tomorrow. I'll be putting you through your paces from seven am to noon then we'll take d-ranked missions until an hour before your curfew. This will continue until I'm satisfied with your progress, then and only then will I request a c-ranked mission for you. However if you work hard then I'm sure we can accomplish this in only a month or so, but that depends on how hard you three work, understood?"

All three glanced at each other before they smirked and turned to him to chorus, "yes, Kakashi-Sensei!"

He laughed before he nodded in satisfaction before he rose from his seat and said, "alright then, you three are free for the rest of the day."

**########################################################################**

While Kakashi was testing his students, Kushina was preparing for her wedding, she had to not only choose the location of the ceremony but also the reception. The Uchiha's were due to arrive the week before the wedding, most of the attending Shinigami had already arrived along with the Visoreds and the Arrancar. The others from the wizarding world would arrive the day before the wedding and stay only until the day after. She was sitting out by the large lake near a temple to Sobek, she ignored the large reptiles basking in the sunlight, she had been amused to find out that the large isle had a great many temples that weren't dedicated to the Greek or Roman pantheons.

Molly had just about fainted the first time the guardian of Ron's inner world had seen fit to make an appearance, she had come across her youngest son lying comfortably on the back of a huge Nile crocodile. Ron had merely been reading his favorite book while Sobek had been sunning himself in the company of his future wielder. Rukia had been with the red haired witch but she had taken one look at how relaxed the pair were and she figured that the two had already established a rapport with one another. After that incident Molly often either found her son meditating with the reptile or he was at the temple of Sobek.

When Thoth had finally showed up outside of Hermione's inner world, he had shown up as a large white baboon. He had been so large that his back had reached her waist, the first time he had yawned sleepily everyone who had seen his fangs gulped. They had easily matched Sekmet's own impressive fangs when she was in her lioness form, it had caused Hermione and Kushina no end of amusement when the two had come across the pair of Zanpakuto napping in their animal forms. The large lioness had curled up around the slightly smaller baboon and had her head resting on his flank as they had snoozed in the mid-afternoon sun.

As Kushina had finished the few thing that had yet to be planned, she saw Ron making his way toward her, he was weaving through the large predatory reptiles without a care in the world. Actually, according to the house elves who cared for the temple and it's animals, the large beasts had never been more docile then they were now. Once Ron had reached her side he said, "finishing up the wedding preparations, I see."

She chuckled before she nodded as she put away the lists she had made to either hand to the house elves or to Kisuke for final approval. "Yes, unfortunately so it does have to be done even if its tasking at time. So how goes the courtship with Rukia," she idly asked as she picked up her things so she could go speak with Albus about his part in the ceremony.

Ron snorted but nodded at her remark about how the planning had to be done and said as he watched her picking up the scrolls, ink as well as her quills, "it's going alright. So far her brother seems to be approving of the match, he was really pleased when Sobek showed up outside of my inner world for some reason."

Kushina almost facepalmed at that comment by Ron, she bit back her own comment of, 'of course he was pleased, by having Sobek already awake means that as soon as you die you'll already be a shinigami and be unlikely to have forgotten your life in the living world. What that means is that Rukia won't have to hunt all over the Rukongai searching for you!' Instead she gave her fellow red head a smile as she said pointedly, "just be happy that he's warming up to you."

Ron sighed but nodded as he said, "true enough," he then watched her leave, as she left he had called out, "I'll talk to you later, Kushina!" She waved goodbye over her shoulder, he then turned toward the temple and walked inside the building, as he approached the alter the few house elves inside gave him bows. Although his guardian spirit wasn't actually the true god of the temple both the house elves and the Nile crocodiles that called the temple home treated the two of them with deference.

While Ron began to meditate a large crocodile appeared behind him, as it walked toward him it transformed into a man with tanned skin and short spiky green hair. The man tilted his head to the right as he gazed at the man who would someday wield him but for now was simply his companion and friend.

**########################################################################**

As Ron and Kushina had spoken to one another, Renji was watching as Ulquiorra was going through the motions of a Kata with a practice sword instead of Murcielago. The red haired man loved to watch the smaller man practice his Katas since the green eyed Arrancar always did so without a shirt on. Renji leered appreciatively at the flexing muscles under silky smooth pale skin, the probationary officer had been informed that by the end of the upcoming school year, if the six Arrancars hadn't hurt anyone then their probation was over and they would be free to do as they pleased. Ulquiorra had already asked the sixth division lieutenant if he could stay with Renji when the red haired man returned to the Seireitei and his duties.

Renji had laughed before he had nuzzled his bat and said, "as if I'd let you be too far away from me, my silly bat, I love you far too much to do that." Ulquiorra had snorted at that comment but smiled in pleased satisfaction, anyone who had seen how Grimmjow was with Uryu knew that the only way anyone was going to pry the panther away from the Quincy was by the archer ordering him or if Grimmjow was dead. The blue haired hollow was fiercely loyal and devoted to the slim male that had won his hard earned trust and love. It had been a sad day for Uryu's fan club when they had realized that the dark haired teen was off the dating market for goo if Grimmjow had any say in the matter.

When Grimmjow had discovered a love of cooking the other five Arrancars had attempted to see if they too could do something almost instinctively. Coyote had discovered that not only could he dance but like the panther and his cooking Coyote's dancing came naturally to him. Lilynette, on the other hand, had discovered painting, her paintings looked so life-like that you almost expected them to move. However none of her paintings moved at all, completely unlike the rest of the Wizarding worlds paintings, someone had remarked that if her paintings moved then they would be ruined. Quite a few Wizarding families had already commissioned paintings from the green haired Arrancar. Mostly landscapes for rooms where the families didn't want any gossiping portraits such as their bedrooms or studies.

Nel, on the other hand, had tried her hand at gardening, to her surprise, she was good at it and even the most dangerous plants all but purred at her attention. To the shock of everyone who had been on it's bad side, even the Whomping willow grew docile when the teal haired woman drew near it. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was an Arrancar because it hadn't behaved the same for any of the other Arrancar when they came close to it.

Tia, during the times that she wasn't busy with the baby dragon or scaring the living daylights out of students who got too near it's pen, would swim in the lake. She didn't know if it had to do with her resurreccion form but she loved swimming and could hold her breath for an astounding ten minutes. Charlie had panicked the first time she'd stayed under the water for more than five minutes, thankfully most of the students had learned not to go near the dragon pen after only two months and the hatchling usually slept until ten am. That freed almost four hours for Tia to swim to her hearts content, at first most of the lakes inhabitants were wary of the shark evolved Arrancar, but after the first two weeks of her swimming in the lake and no one being hurt they all relaxed around her.

Ulquiorra glanced over at Renji and caught the leer, unlike before where he would have blushed he rolled his shoulders lightly which had caused Renji's eyes to zero in on the movement. The dark haired man heard as Murcielago laughed before she murmured, 'he can't take his eyes off you, can he?'

He stretched as he replied to her lightly, 'no I don't think he can,' he felt as the demonic looking spirit stretched out as she rolled onto her stomach in his inner world.

The first time Murcielago and Zabimaru were in the same room, most people had expected the two abrasive spirits would clash with each other but to everyone's surprise they got along just fine. What neither of the spirits bother to mention to their wielders was the fact that the pairs inner worlds had been brushing against each other for a while as their wielders became closer. Not physically close but rather emotionally and mentally close, if it was just physical closeness quite a few shinigami would have shared inner worlds.

Murcielago watched as the snake half of Zabimaru was running around while the female baboon half watched with amused eyes, for some reason the boy got really hyper whenever Renji watched Ulquiorra working out. So her and Saru were used to being entertained by a very bouncing Hebi who acted more like a monkey then a serpent when he was this hyper. The two females rolled their eyes at Hebi's actions before they returned to their naps, both cheerfully ignored the outside world as they snuggled down together. After he tired himself out, Hebi dropped down next to the two female spirits, Saru lazily opened her eyes before she pulled her other half between herself and Murcielago.

Renji finally growled and stalked over to the smaller man, he picked him up and tossed him over his shoulder before he stalked into the house they had been staying at while on Elysian Isle. Lily, who had been walking by, raised an eyebrow at the sight of a laughing Ulquiorra being tossed over Renji's shoulder, she began to snicker when her fellow red head kicked the door shut on the way in. As she continued to walk toward the villa where her, Coyote and Lilynette had been staying since school let out she murmured, "well, those two probably won't be surfacing until dinner."

**########################################################################**

Meanwhile, Rabastan wandered around the forest, he had the oddest urge lately to be around trees, plus he thought that it was a bit odd that plants seemed to be growing faster around him. If he had bothered to tell Kushina about the urges or his suspicions she would have told him that it was possible, unlikely but possible, that his Bloodline limit had carried over slightly into his new life. It was extremely unlikely that the Mukoton Bloodline Limit had manifested fully in him since he wasn't blood related to the Senju's even Kushina could only claim a blood relationship to the Uzumaki clan. Rodolphus would have no doubt told them that if someone used the second method of the forbidden Impure World Resurrection Technique and caused them to be summoned then their reincarnations as Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange as well as Kushina Potter-Lupin to be moot point.

Ever since he admitted to Ichigo and Kushina that he was Masaki's reincarnation as well as being Hashirama Senju's reincarnation. Although he still didn't remember his name from that life he only remembered founding Konoha with the Uchiha's and Hyuga's as well as his brother name. Other than those few things, his life before this one was a total blank and Rodolphus only remembered a bit more than that but neither of them could recall what they looked like. If either one of them had bothered to ask Kushina about it she would have told them with a grin, "nothing like you look now!"

As he wandered the forest he heard a voice call out from behind him, "I see you're communing with nature yet again, my love." Rabastan looked over his shoulder at Isshin, once Kushina had confirmed that the younger Lestrange brother was indeed his beloved wife's reincarnation the once silly and excitable shinigami had calmed down. So much so that Ryuken had been startled by how serious the dark haired doctor was once again, however all three of the Kurosaki children were merely relieved.

Rabastan snorted lightly before he said while he looked around amusedly, "well, you know me, I'm always glad to be around nature." He flashed a grin at the other man before he said slyly, "must be the wolf in me," he winked before he shifted into a large black wolf. He then leapt upon his mate and began to lick him enthusiastically, the licks had caused the other man to begin laughing in an uncontrollable manner.

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

Kushina watched as Kisuke looked over the scroll concerning the wedding plans, he hummed before he nodded in approval as he handed them back to her as he said, "I have no objections to any of your decisions, my beloved muse." She sighed in relief before she flashed a quick smile at him, she had hoped that he wouldn't object to any of the wedding plans. The last time they had married it had been a hushed affair with few people knowing of it and she hadn't been able to take his last name. The reason for keeping their marriage a secret had been two fold, on one hand Minato knew very well that Kushina had a large and fearsome reputation for a reason but he still wanted to protect her. Second, they had been married shortly after Sakumo's death, there had been only four witnesses to the wedding. Three of those four had been Minato's Genin team and the fourth had been Kushina's baby brother who had merely been happy for his sister.

Later that night as she watched her fiancé sleeping, Kushina remembered the last time she had seen her baby brother, she had been so relieved that he had escaped the destruction of their village. He hadn't come to Konoha to join the ranks but had an open invitation to join it had been signed and sealed by Minato when he became the Fourth Hokage. Most of the survivors of the destruction had settled in Rain, Wave and Mist as civilians, most of the survivors had changed their last names to hide that they were survivors. Instead of coming to Konoha her brother had chosen to wander the hidden countries, she knew that he was perfectly safe. Her brother had been skilled enough to evade anyone who wanted to rob or kill him, besides he had signed one of their villages many animal contracts at the age of five. And his summons adored him so she knew that he would be well protected despite not being a registered nin with any of the hidden villages.

She hadn't been able to tell him that he was going to be an uncle, Kushina knew that if her Kimi-Chan had known about Naruto he would have made a bee-line straight for Konoha to demand custody as was his right not only as Naruto's uncle but also as the Head of the Uzumaki clan. If he had known then her son would have not only grown up on tales of his mother but he would have been taught how to make seals from the moment he could write properly, not to mention having several animal playmates. However, when she had sent out her clones none of them had been able to find him, no matter where or how hard they had looked. It was as if Kimihiro had vanished into thin air but the family tree cave had marked him as being still alive even if it didn't tell them what name he was going by now.

In a week the Uchiha clan would be arriving to witness her wedding, she had also received permission from the King to have Obito and Rin present for the event. None of the Wizarding World guests were going to miss it, not even Minister Bones and her guard. After the wedding they would have a small reception on the beach with all the people who attended the wedding invited to the nighttime gathering. The honeymoon was a surprise for her since Kisuke had asked her if he could plan it, all other parts of the wedding he had left up to her and the other concerned parities.

Kushina glanced out the window at the moon as it shone over the ocean and whispered, "be safe, baby brother, wherever you are and wherever the wind takes you." She then settled down next to Kisuke and after she snuggled into the covers beside him she closed her eyes and slipped into slumber. A few moments after she had fallen asleep, Kisuke unconsciously pulled her closer to him and after he nuzzled her cheek with his, he had tucked her head under his chin.


	3. Chapter Two: Of Training and Missions

 

 

**Chapter Two: Of Training and Missions**

* * *

 

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura arrived at the training grounds at different times, when Dobby had found out about the training schedule for team Seven, he had insisted that he make all three Genins and their teacher lunch. Naruto had all four lunches sealed into a scroll, when he arrived to find Sasuke leaning against one of the posts he asked cheerfully, "been waiting long, Sasuke?" The raven haired boy looked up at the cheerful blond and shook his head negatively so Naruto said, "good! Have you eaten breakfast," Naruto inquired as he laid down on the ground so he could stare up at the cloud dotted sky.

Sasuke hesitated for a moment as he stared at the blond oddly at the question before he finally said, "yeah, I ate breakfast." He then raised an eyebrow at the blond, who didn't even see it, before he asked, "why are you looking at the sky?"

"I'm trying to figure out just why cloud watching is the favorite hobby of the Nara Clan," Naruto replied as he narrowed his gaze up at the clouds. He then nodded firmly and pointed at a specific cloud as he said in a firm tone, "that looks like a kitty!"

Sasuke glanced up at it and hn'd before he said thoughtfully, "looks more like a dog to me."

Three minutes later, Sakura came into the training grounds to find both of her teammates lying on their backs staring at the sky and exchanging remarks about what they thought a particular cloud looked like. She shook her head over the pairs antics but settled down next to them to wait for their sensei to arrive, he showed up ten minutes after Sakura had. Kakashi was actually on time, a fact that would both amaze and horrify the other Jounins if they knew. Unknown to his team and his comrades, Kakashi had decided that for his team alone, he'd be on time for missions and training sessions, after all, if he did otherwise he'd be a terrible teacher by example.

The silver haired man cleared his throat and all three of his students looked up at him, he chuckled lightly at the wide eyes turned on him. Even Sasuke had been startled by his appearance, "ready to get started, Kids," asked the one eyed nin as he approached them lazily.

All three stood up, Naruto was bouncing on his heels while Sasuke put his hands in his pockets and Sakura had merely looked at him expectantly. Kakashi laughed again before he said while he clapped his hands together, "alright, first things first. We'll begin work on some chakra control exercises, for those with low chakra reserves these exercises can expand and strengthen those reserves. Once you three have mastered the first lesson and can do it without having to think about it, we'll move to the second more difficult method and do the same with it as the first." As he had spoken to them, he had walked over to one of the trees in the training ground and waited for the question he knew was coming soon from one of the three.

"What's the first exercise, Sensei," asked Sakura as she tilted her head to the side in curiosity as she stared at him inquisitively.

Kakashi huffed a laugh before he said while giving the three an eye-smile, "the first exercise is to climb a tree without using your hands to help. Here, watch, I'll demonstrate," he said upon receiving disbelieving looks from Sasuke and Sakura. He then turned to the tree near him and, as calm as you can please, walked right up to stand upside down on one of the uppermost branches. After he had chuckled over the surprised expressions on two of his Genins faces, Kakashi then released the chakra holding him to the branch. He flipped in midair to land right in front of them, he cushioned his fall with chakra and smiled happily at the bewildered expressions on Sakura and Sasuke's faces.

"Shinobi use chakra to keep themselves from falling," he explained to them with his hands in his pockets, "however, too much chakra can cause the bark to explode, too little and you won't stick to the tree. The tree walking method, or exercise, can also be done with buildings but trees are harder to learn on. So if you can master it by practicing it on trees by the time you use this method to walk on the walls of buildings, you'll have an easier time of it." Kakashi gave them a serious stare as he said, "I plan to drill this exercise into you so much that you'll use it without having to think about it. Same with all the other exercises, your mother," he nodded to Naruto, "could use the second method so well that she could fight five enemies while using it."

His words caused a fire of determination to spring to life in their eyes and the three awaited further instructions from Kakashi. They soon received them, "to perform the exercise you have to draw your chakra from your coils to your feet. Remember, too little chakra and you'll slide right off the tree, too much chakra and you'll explode off of it." He then stood back to allow them to attempt the manuver, the three split up and found a tree to start the exercise. Kakashi chuckled when all three pulled out a Kunai to mark their progress with before they began to make their way up the trees.

Sakura reached the top of her tree in only three tries, Sasuke had reached halfway up the tree on his fourth try while Naruto was glaring at his tree and muttering curse words under his breath. His highest mark was a foot below Sasuke's highest, which surprised Kakashi, since he knew that Naruto had huge chakra stores and thus had poor chakra control. The silver haired man went over to Sakura and said, "good job, Sakura, however, the reason for your success is due to the smallness of your chakra reserves. I want you to walk up and down this tree until either I say otherwise, the boys reach the top of their trees or you run out of chakra. Understood," he asked as he stared her in the eye.

She nodded as she murmured, "yes, Sensei," before she began to follow his instructions, she walked up the tree back to the top before she reversed directions and walked back down to the bottom.

Kakashi then walked over to the two boys and clapped Naruto on the shoulder as he said, "good job, you're making better progress then I expected you to due to your chakra reserves. Your mother had a hard time learning this exercise due to her immense chakra reserves, since you inherited those reserves from her, I had thought you'd be having more trouble then you are." Naruto brightened at the information that he was progressing faster then his mother had on her tries to learn the move. He brightened even further and Sasuke relaxed at the next comment from their sensei. "The larger a person's reserves are the harder it is for them to learn how to control it, they often can't gauge how much chakra they are putting into a move. They also often find the clone technique hard to learn since it can look wrong if too much chakra is used to make the clone." Kakashi had explained, his words caused Sakura and Sasuke eyes to widen since Naruto had always had trouble with the clone jutsu, if his reserves were as large then he had probably been putting too much chakra into them without realizing it.

Naruto had nodded at the silver haired nin's words before he said cheerfully, "yeah, I had to learn a different clone jutsu just to be able to have clones." He had rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he spoke, both of his teammates had looked at him oddly at that.

"Which clone technique worked for you," asked Kakashi idly as he walked over to a training post and leaned on it as he pulled out his book.

Naruto blinked from his position on the tree before he replied, "the Shadow clone jutsu since the chakra is automatically split between myself and all of my clones. Because of that I don't have to worry about controlling how much chakra I put into them." He rubbed the back of his neck and said with a sheepish smile, "actually if I put quite a bit of chakra into them they can take more hits then they usually can."

Kakashi blinked before he silently wonder if the blond knew about the other benefits to the shadow clone jutsu compared to any other clone techniques. He also wondered if he should teach the move Sakura and Sasuke in order to allow the three to their clones to memorize scrolls pertaining to relevant information. Such as medical jutsu, taijutsu moves scrolls and sealing information. As he considered it he said, "Naruto," the blond looked up at him from where he had dropped after reaching three quarters the way up the tree. "Make a clone for me real quick, only one, Naruto," Kakashi clarified softly once he had the blue eyed Genin's attention.

Naruto shrugged but followed the odd order and made a single clone, Kakashi then did the same before the two clones walked out of sight. One minute later, the blond haired boy stopped in his tracks and looked down at his sensei as he said crossly, "a blind person could tell that you like him, you know. The fact of that doesn't really shock me, besides," Naruto walked up the tree as he had spoken. "I'm of the opinion you'd be good for him but," the blond glared down at the silver haired man, "if you ever hurt him, I'll beat you black and blue, believe it!"

Sasuke and Sakura paused in their endeavors to look at the pair oddly before Sasuke said, "what are you talking about, Naruto? Kakashi-sensei hasn't said anything after he had you make a shadow clone."

Naruto opened his mouth to retort the brunettes comment before he frowned and thought before he realized that the clearing Kakashi told him in wasn't the same as the clearing the three were in now. When he realized that he glanced at his sensei in askance and the silver haired man said, "the perk of the shadow clone is that whatever the clone learns gets passed to the user when it dispels." He then glanced at the gaping pair before he aid, "I'll teach it to you in a couple of days."

While Sasuke and Sakura pouted slightly, well Sakura pouted, Sasuke on the other hand gave him a sullen stare, Naruto had reached the top of his tree and crowed his victory. Kakashi chuckled at the blonds obvious glee at making it to the top, he looked up at him before he said with amusement in his voice, "good job, Naruto. Now, run up and down it until I say otherwise," he ordered him.

Naruto pouted for a few moments but obeyed the order, the silver haired man glanced at the other two before he said, "did I tell you to stop, no, then get back to work." The pair sighed but obeyed the cheerfully said order, as they ran up and down the trees all three wondered what their first few mission would be like.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Four hours later, Kakashi had led his team to the mission room and stopped in front of one of the mission desks before he said in a lazy drawl, "team Seven requesting a D-rank mission."

The mission desk nin didn't even look up as she handed over a folder to the Jounin, Kakashi had taken it from her and walked out of the mission room, his three students followed him out like cygnets would their mother. As the four passed team Eight, all four had nodded a distracted hello to them, which caused a series of odd looks to pass over the other teams faces. Once the four had reached outside Sakura asked, "so what mission did we get?"

Kakashi flipped open the folder and hummed before he said, "looks like you guys get to paint a few houses and fences." Although somewhat disgruntled about having to do such menial chores both Sasuke and Sakura had been told by Naruto that all d-ranked missions were like the one they had just received. All three of the kids knew that until their sensei felt them ready, missions like this were all they were going to get but they knew that if they worked hard they'd eventually get a c-ranked mission. "It would seem that a family owns three houses and wishes to have them all painted today," Kakashi said idly as the four walked away from the Hokage tower.

One hour and fifteen minutes later, Kakashi led his team back to the mission room, Naruto bounced along happily, thanks to his shadow clones the three had gotten done quickly. Upon seeing the blond using the clones Kakashi had sighed before he remarked, "I'll allow this since a higher ranked mission might call for your teammates to be used to working with one of your clones. However," he had pinned the three with a stern stare, "you are not allowed to call forth more than ten clones for a D-ranked mission." Sakura was smiling happily at having gotten done so quickly while Sasuke looked slightly more relaxed then usual but he was not smiling like Sakura nor grinning like Naruto.

They stopped at one of the desks in the room and handed over their reports, after which Kakashi said, "team Seven requests another D-ranked mission, something a little harder, please." As the mission desk personnel took the paperwork from the silver haired Jounin and handed over a new folder Kakashi nodded a vague greeting to Raido, who was standing next to a chattering Genma with a long suffering look on his face.

Once again, the four left the tower, this time Kakashi immediately flipped open the folder. Upon seeing the contents and mission parameters he snickered before he said in a mock serious tone," your new mission is to find and capture Tora the cat."

The three genins blinked in unison before Sasuke asked in a bored tone, "who does the cat belong to and where would it be most likely to head to?" As he asked he crossed his arms over his chest and scowled darkly at some of his fan girls that were giggling nearby.

Kakashi grinned under his mask before he said cheerfully, "Tora is the daimyo's wife's pet cat, she has a tendency to smother Tora with affection so the cat occasionally escapes to get some time alone. Tora tends to head for the woods or wooded areas where it's easier to hide. Tora also tends to fight back depending upon how long after it escapes that it's found," he added thoughtfully. The four walked down the hall of the Mission Item Requisition Office, "we're going to need some communicators so we can coordinate an effective attack." He scowled darkly under his mask as he added under his breath, "I wish there was a seal that allowed us to do that, it's always a pain to get these things from here."

Thirty minutes later team Seven exited the MIRO building, as they did Naruto resolved to either find or make a seal that allowed silent communication because what they just went through was ridiculous. All of them now wore headsets, after fifteen minutes of looking for the cat Naruto asked, "can I use more than ten clones so I can find Tora faster, Sensei?"

After the Jounin thought it over he nodded as he said, "alright, when attempting to locate Tora the cat you can summon up to forty clones. But no more than that, Naruto," he warned the bouncing blond, who had nodded cheerfully as he summoned the maximum allowance of clones. Within ten minutes Naruto led his team to a small park and the three Genins began to hunt down the feline.

As they hunted for the beleaguered cat, Naruto idly wondered aloud, "can cats understand cheetah and if they can could we use them to talk to Tora about a deal…" Kakashi chuckled over the line at that remark from his position on top of the monkey bars while Sakura and Sasuke raised silent eyebrows at it, the pink haired girl mouthed to her dark haired companion, ' _what does Naruto mean by that?'_ Sasuke shrugged in answer with a puzzled frown on his face before he mouthed back to her, _'I don't have a clue, we can ask him later.'_

Five minutes later Sakura found Tora and the cat led the three on a merry chase that ended with all four beings exhausted after forty minutes of the cat leading them through the playground like it was a massive obstacle course. To Sasuke's and Sakura's surprise, Naruto bit his thumb and swiped the bloody digit across his left upper arm under his elbow length shirt sleeve. They were even more surprised when with a puff of smoke a mid-sized cheetah appeared, it, or rather he had a yellow collar around his neck. The collar had a metal plate on it with the same spiral that was stitched onto Naruto's jackets as well as on the Chuunin vests and Jounin flak jackets etched onto it.

The cheetah looked at Naruto then glanced around the playground, Kakashi was still perched atop the monkey bars watching his Genin in amused affection. Sakura was holding Tora around the middle firmly while Sasuke edged away from the cat. The cheetah chuckled before he said, "I can see that you received the mission to find and capture Tora." He snickered lightly before he muttered almost to himself, "your mother was the only person to continually volunteer to take that mission when she was in the village." He then looked at Naruto quizzically as he asked, "what can I do for you, little one?"

Naruto scratched the cat behind his ears and said while he purred, "well, Xun, I was wondering if you could act as a interpreter between myself and Tora." Xun looked at him with a confused half-lidded gaze and Naruto decided to elaborate, "I want to make Tora an offer. However, I don't think that any of my team speak cat, so I thought of you guys."

Xun stretched lightly before he purred at the small feline, Tora slowly relaxed in Sakura's hold before it meowed questioningly at the cheetah who had chirped back at it. Xun then looked up at Naruto and said, "Tora is curious about the offer and is willing to at least listen to your proposal."

Naruto grinned as he rubbed his hands together gleefully while his teammates settled down to listen as he said, "I want to make Tora a deal concerning the mission to find and capture it. Team Seven will try to take the mission as often as we can and we will promise to take at least two hours to find Tora if Tora promises not to fight us when we do come to retrieve it." Xun blinked a bit but began relaying the blonds offer to the cat in chirps, purrs and growls, after several tense moments Tora meowed and purred back to the much larger feline.

Xun then turned back to Naruto and said in a cheerful voice, "Tora agrees to your proposal and indicates that if your teammate allows it, Tora would like to hide in the Uchiha compound since no one goes in there anymore." Sasuke shrugged but didn't object to the cats request so Xun relayed that Tora could hide in the compound if she wanted to. After another moment Tora meowed something to Xun that caused the cheetah to blink then shrug before he relayed the cats message, "she told me that if Team Seven promises to take the mission to find her when they're in the village, then she'll keep her escapes to three times a week instead of three to four times a day."

Once the deal had been sealed, Team Seven and Tora headed to the mission room with Tora perched upon Sakura's shoulder. As they got closer to the tower Tora meowed plaintively and the pink haired girl gave her a soothing stroke along her back. All three Genins watched in sympathy as Tora was scooped up and hugged by a large woman, "poor Tora," Sakura whispered with a wince.

Both Sasuke and Naruto winced in agreement to her words, the dark haired boy had a flash of himself in Tora's place and the Daimyo's wife was replaced by his fan girls. All three Genins spotted the look of utter happiness that flashed across their Sensei's face when he spotted Iruka at one of the mission desks. He quickly got into the line and once he reached the desk he lazily handed over the reports before he said in an equally lazy voice from behind his beloved Icha Icha book, "mission complete. Team Seven requests another D-rank mission, please," some of the other Jounin and the Chuunin's around them glanced at the silver haired man oddly at the tacked on please before they spotted the three preteens, two of whom had plastered attentive and adoring looks on their faces.

Sasuke had surprisingly been one of the two to do so, the other being Sakura while Naruto had a calculating look on his face as he glanced between Iruka and Kakashi before for he shot his Jounin sensei a mild glare. Izumo and Kotetsu surmised that the blond just realized about the crush that the Jounin had on the oblivious Chuunin. Of course, Kakashi was just as oblivious to Iruka's crush on him as the tanned man was about his, the two gate guards noticed the gleam that came to the blue eyed blonds eyes as they darted between the pair.

Iruka looked over the report, fully expecting to have to yell at the infamous Jounin to go redo it, he blinked in shock at how much better it was then usual, "thank you, Hatake-san." Iruka had looked down as he thanked the Jounin and thus missed the pout that went across the older mans face at the formal way he addressed him. Iruka flipped through the stack of files in front of him for a mission, he finally stopped at one and handed it over to Kakashi as he did he flashed a smile at team Seven as he said, "thank you for your hard work."

The three Genins followed their sensei with bemused expressions and after they had snapped the blissful man out of his fugue state, he opened the file. "Hmm, it seems as if we get to do some shopping for two different families," the Jounin finally murmured to himself quietly.

All three Genins raised an eyebrow in unison at hat before Sasuke asked, "what kind of shopping? Grocery, clothing or other household essentials?" As he asked that he had crossed his arms over his chest, Sakura on the other hand had stopped looking so disgruntled and looked a bit curious as to the answer. Naruto had merely sighed, he knew that due to his shadow clone jutsu he'd end up acting as the pack mule for the majority of the shopping trip.

"Grocery and other household essentials," Kakashi replied as he flipped through the folder, he then pulled out a pair of paper slips, "they even thought to include list of what they need so we don't have to stop by to pick them up. How thoughtful of them," Kakashi said happily as he waved the slips of paper around.

################################################## ######################

Naruto sighed again but followed Sakura as she led him through the produce stands, at first the vendors had glared suspiciously at the blond before Sakura shoved the first bag into his hands with a muttered, "hold that for me." He was now holding over a dozen bags and she wasn't even halfway done with their part of the shopping, Sasuke and Kakashi were taking care of the other part of the mission. Naruto listened idly as Sakura haggled with a vendor, he had affected a bored expression on his face but was in fact taking mental notes on the way she handled them to get a lower price.

They had been shopping for hours already, Sakura had refused to even consider not haggling since they were using someone else's account to do their shopping for them. Her reasoning was simple: _'if we do a good enough job and get their items at a lower price than usual then they'll be more likely to request our team which means we get more missions in our file which increases the chances of us being allowed into the Chuunin Exams!'_ Unfortunately the haggling process could take as little as five minutes or up to thirty minutes, so Naruto was stuck holding the bags and calculating how long they'd been at it.

He sighed for the third time in as many minutes when he realized they had been shopping for two hours since it was now five o'clock and they had received the mission at three o'clock. He groaned softly as Sakura triumphantly returned with four more bags, he created a clone to take them from her and the clone pouted as he took the bags from the pink haired girl. The pair followed her down the street, as they did Naruto hoped that Sasuke and Kakashi were having an easier time of it then he was.

################################################## ######################

A little ways wary from Sakura and Naruto, a certain pale haired nin stared at the last Uchiha in undisguised astonishment, after they had been ambushed by some of Sasuke's fan girls the dark haired boy had shifted to his Oiroke form. That, however, was not what was causing the older male to be astounded, what was causing his state was the fact that Sasuke's female from was well known in the shops. Enough so to be called by a different name whenever one of his fan girls was within earshot, Sasuke also seemed to like shopping but only while he was in his female form. Kakashi figured that shopping as a girl was about the only time he didn't get bothered by his fan girls and thus had developed an extreme fondness for it due to the positive reinforcement.

Kakashi leaned against a wall with bags at his feet as he watched his normally closed off student haggling with a store owner over some merchandise, he huffed a quiet laugh as his mask hid his bemused smile. He knew that if the Uchiha's fan girls knew about his love for shopping all of them would faint from shock, of course, that tempted him to begin that little rumor just to see if that would actually happen.

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Six hours after they began the mission Team Seven returned to the mission room to turn in their reports before heading home for the night, it had taken five hours to complete the shopping then another hour to drop it all off. Once again Kakashi made a beeline for Iruka while making sure that the report was up to the scarred Chuunin's standards. Normally, the silver haired nin messed up the reports on purpose, his actions combined with his crush on the Chuunin caused many of his friends to question his remaining sanity. One time they got him drunk and asked him just why he turned in substandard reports if it was Iruka he was turning them into, his reply amused them deeply, "I love the way he looks when he's angry. His eyes flash, his face flushes and while he's mad at me all of his attention is focused only on me," he had given them a rather sad look before he said, "I hate it when he ignores me so if him being angry at me is what it takes to get his attention then I'll keep making him angry for the rest of my life."

However, right now he didn't want Iruka to think he was incapable of teaching proper Shinobi behavior to Team Seven, even if he purposefully didn't bother with it half the time himself. Iruka had accepted the sheath of papers and looked them over, he blinked then frowned in puzzlement at the fact that once again the silver haired nin's report was flawless. He peered up at Kakashi, who merely blinked innocently, which his blink looked more like a wink since only one eye was visible if it weren't for the confused look in his eye. "Something wrong with the report, Iruka-Sensei," asked Kakashi in mock confusion, of course Iruka took it as real confusion, as he tilted his head to the side much like a dog would when it was confused with something.

Iruka set the report to the side to be filed later as he said slowly, "no, Hatake-San, nothing is wrong with it. Did the mission go well," he asked Team Seven as a whole.

"Hnn," was all Sasuke had to say before he made a comment of, "it wasn't too bad."

Naruto had snorted before he muttered, much to everyone who had heard said comments amusement, "for you maybe. I had to carry over twenty bags for Sakura by the time she was finished with our part of the shopping, it took over three clones and myself to do it." Said pink haired girl slapped him upside the head for that comment, when Sasuke snickered, which in itself drew some disbelieving looks from the crowd, Sakura reached over and slapped him upside the head.

"Don't laugh at your teammates or you get the same punishment, remember, Sasuke," she drawled in an annoyed tone of voice.

Sasuke rubbed the back of his head where she had hit him as he grumbled, "yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember, Sakura. You don't have to remind me," he gave her a sullen look which was much different to the glares he normally gave his fan girls so either Sakura had snapped out of that mode or Sasuke had grown more tolerant of her.

While Sakura was disciplining both of their boys Kakashi turned to Iruka and said cheerfully, "Team Seven is done with missions for today since curfew for Genins is in one hour."

Iruka had been watching the three preteens with a bemused smile before he turned to Kakashi and said, "alright then, have a good night you three. Will you be taking missions tomorrow," he asked idly as he took another report from a Jounin on a b-ranked mission.

"Mah, we probably will if they do well enough in their training session," Kakashi answered lazily which made the three kids behind him raise their eyebrows as if to say, _'you expect differently, Sensei?'_

With that Kakashi left the room with his three students following him.

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The next six days followed much the same as the first save for variations in missions and training, once the three had the tree walking down, Kakashi put them to work on agility and strength building exercises as well as refining their taijutsu skills. Sasuke had focused on a style that used a combination of speed, stealth and causing as much damage to vital spots as quickly as possible. Sakura had, surprisingly, chosen a style that used brute strength, cunning and flexibility, her style was similar to the style that Gai was teaching Lee only hers didn't use the gates to augment their techniques.

Naruto, on the other hand, used a mixture of four different styles: his mothers, his fathers, Sakumo's and one taught to him by the memory of a man named Salazar Slytherin. The first time that Manda had spat out the scroll containing the copy of Salazar's personality the blond had almost fainted in shock. But the green eyed man had taught him how to use his entire body while fighting, the dark haired wizard/Shinobi had told him simply, "if you're always moving then your enemy can't hit you."

Kushina style focused on confusing her enemies via sheer numbers due to her clones not to mention her love of slicing her opponents to ribbons. Minato's style on the other hand was mostly focus on him being on the move using his Flying Thunder God technique and his smarts to defeat his opponents. Sakumo had tended to use long range jutsu's or close quarters combat techniques, he would use his summons to chase down and hold or kill an enemy. Naruto combined the way his mother used her clones with his fathers tendency to think about his opponents moves before acting. He had also chosen to use Salazar's method of moving his entire body with a move with Sakumo's preferences of either long ranged combat jutsus or in your face fighting.

There had been a good reason that Sakumo and Kushina got along so well, they had very similar, yet different, fighting styles. However, Kushina often relied on her clones more than her summons to fight with since with the death of each clone she knew more about the battle, her summons couldn't do the same. The silver haired Jounin had once joked after a fight that his partner was a one woman army unto herself and Kami help anyone who dared to cross her. Unfortunately, a summon that belonged to an enemy nin overheard the joke and took it as fact, it later reported as much to it's summoner who then spread it throughout the elemental countries. She ended up with yet another moniker, this one being ' _the one woman army from Uzushiogakure,'_ it seemed that whatever village the nin had come from recognized that Kushina was from Whirlpool.

Sakumo had almost died due to his laughter over the new nickname then almost by Kushina's hands when they found out about the moniker for her. Once he had escaped her hold from where she had been attempting to strangle him, he had ran through a few training fields while he chalked. Of course, Kushina had been only one step behind her partner and had been making snarling threats at him, some of the snarled threats had double meaning for the pair. Even in the middle of her being angry at and chasing after him, she still was able to keep her cool enough to keep up the charade of them hating each other.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Flashback^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Everyone who had witnessed the chase and was still alive would laugh about it now, especially after it was revealed that Kushina and Sakumo had pranked the village by pretending they hated each other. When Kakashi and Minato had seen the sight of the pair running through the training grounds, the blond haired man had almost collapsed due to his fit of laughter. It wouldn't be until after Kushina and Minato's death that Kakashi would find out just why his teacher had been laughing at the threat that Kushina had shouted at his father that day. Personally for the silver haired boy, at the time he found her threat confusing, she had shouted at him, "if you don't stop and let me strangle you right now. I swear to Kami I will never again take you on a mission to _that_ country again!"

To everyone's surprise Sakumo had immediately stopped in his tracks after he had blanched and let Kushina tackle him to the ground. She had wrapped her hands around his neck, he allowed her to do this for several moments in complete stillness before he began squirming restlessly. "Just how long do you plan to do this to me," the pale haired man had asked in a slightly raspy voice, it seemed that although she wanted to strangle her partner, she didn't want to kill him. The red haired woman was straddling his hips and was putting just enough pressure on his windpipe to restrict his breathing but not enough to stop it completely.

Her lips had compressed into a thin line as she had said between gritted teeth, "until I no longer feel the need to put a kunai through one of my favorite toys." She had then given him a bloodthirsty grin as she said sweetly, "I don't think that either Minato nor I would like it if that happened. I also doubt that the owner of said favorite toy would like it all that much if I did that."

The silver haired Shinobi had swallowed thickly under her hands before he rasped out, "no, I don't think he would appreciate you doing that to it. Carry on with your strangling then, partner," he squeaked out as he ceased his squirming.

She briefly let go of his neck with her right hand and patted his left cheek as she cooed, "good boy, Sakumo," the pair were just outside of the Academy. Several students were gaping at the pair outside, they could tell that the one on the ground was a Jounin while the woman straddling him was a mere Chuunin. Obito and Rin glanced at each other as they silently wondered what the man did to make the woman so angry at him.

Across from the Academy, sitting in a swing was Iruka, he cocked his head to the side as he curiously watched the pair, a few moments later Minato and Kakashi walked up to them. Minato looked down at his girlfriend and his friend as he asked in a bemused tone, "so, Sakumo, just what did you do to make the Red Hot Habanero of Konoha so angry at you?"

Stormy grey eyes glanced up at him before they turned their flashing depths to the nin pinned under their owner. "Yes, Sakumo, what did you do to make me so angry at you," she asked in a sweet tone that belied her angry expression.

Sakumo gulped at the sweet way she had asked him that, whenever she spoke sweetly to a grown person it usually meant she was angry to the point of homicide. If she used that tone on a mission he usually tried to get whoever she was speaking to away from her if they were either a civilian, the client, a relative of a client, an important person or the Daimyo's wife. For her to be using it on him meant that he was in big trouble with her and he better watch his step around her until he had either appeased her or she calmed down.

Upon seeing Minato raising his eyebrows expectantly at him, the silver haired nin sighed shallowly before he said, "I might have accidentally gotten her labeled in a bingo book as the one woman army from Uzushiogakure. How was I supposed to know that a summon was nearby," he asked defensively at the disbelieving looks he received from his son and Minato at that mumbled statement.

"Father, I love you and I'm proud to be your son but sometimes where Kushina-Okasan is concerned, you're an idiot," Kakashi stated while he shook his head before he turned to Minato. "Minato-Sensei, I'm going to go practice that move a bit more, okay," he cocked his head to the left as he asked.

Minato snorted lightly before he waved his student off as he said, "that's fine, Kakashi. I'll be there in a little while, I just to make sure that Kushina isn't going to deprive Konoha of one of its best Jounins. Even if he is an idiot," the blond tacked on with a smirk at the pinned man.

Kakashi walked away and said over his shoulder, "alright, Sensei, don't take too long."

It wouldn't be until years later that a scene similar to that old scene would be played out that Iruka would remember that once upon a time, Kakashi had called Naruto's mother Okasan and his father not bat an eye. A fact that should have clued most people into the fact that the pair were friendly enough for Kushina to be close to Sakumo's only son.

However at that time all of the people watching stared in shock as Minato waved his student away before he looked down at the pair and asked, "have you calmed down enough for Sakumo here to even be able to begin to appease you?"

She stared down at the older man with a narrowed gaze as she thought over the question her boyfriend had posed to her. She had then cocked her head to the side before she hummed as the look in her eyes softened slightly. The only ones to witness that happening were Sakumo, Minato and unknown to the three adults, Iruka also saw how her previously angry glare had softened into bemused exasperation.

When Iruka saw it, the look reminded him of the one his mother wore when his father did something to make her angry at him. Usually whenever that happened his parents would lock themselves in their room after giving him something to do. When he asked what they were doing in there his mom had told him, "your father is merely apologizing to me in private. When you love someone and you know that they have their pride, as long as what they need to apologize for isn't grievous then it should be done privately. In my opinion your father's actions didn't warrant a public apology but a private one instead," she had then ruffled his hair. As she did she said thoughtfully, "someday in the future, you'll have to decide whether or not you love someone enough to allow them to give you private apologies or public, same as they will have to do so for you."

Of course the four year old still didn't understand but he knew that whenever his mother got that look on her face it usually meant that his father's apology and groveling would be done privately. So it didn't surprise him that the red haired woman said, "I think I've calmed down sufficiently to allow him to make his apology and begin his groveling in private." She had then looked up at the blond haired man and said, "I promise you, Minato, I won't kill him. Today," she tacked on as she set the slowly relaxing man a glare. With that said she used the Shunshin technique to make the pair disappear in a whirl of flames, after the pair had vanished Minato had laughed before he headed back to train Kakashi.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^End Flashback^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

On the fourteenth of July, Kakashi got several old scrolls of Medical Jutsus out from storage, the scrolls had belonged to his father even though he had never read or used them. Kakashi remembered how Kushina would occasionally glance through the scrolls and smile with bittersweet fondness, as if the memories associated with them were sweet yet painful to her. The lazy man stared down at one of the five scrolls as he remembered how his father would smile fondly as he would run his fingers over them. All Sakumo had said to Kakashi concerning the scrolls was that Kushina and him had found them while hiding at an old temple from some enemy nin.

Finally the silver haired man shook his head and left the storage room, as he closed the door a shaft of light from the closing door fell across an old photo of Sakumo and Minato sitting on either side of Kushina who has holding a beaming seven year old Kakashi on her lap. If anyone had flipped over the photo they would have read the message on the back of it, _'so you can always keep us close to your heart, your partner, forever and always - Kushina-Uzumaki, Konoha's Crimson Blade.'_   Scrawled underneath that note was a small note of, _'sorry Taiyo, I hate to run out on you but I have no choice if I want to keep the three of you safe, your Banjaku, now and forever.'_ When Sakumo's body had been found the photo was clutched in his hand, it had been clear that Sakumo fully expected that Kushina would be the one to find his body not his son.

Kakashi arrived at training ground number seven to find his kids sparring on the lake, he whistled sharply at them and all three ceased their movements. Naruto looked up from his position crouching on the lake while Sasuke had froze in mid-handspring, he had both hands on the surface of the lake while his body was vertical to it. Sakura had done the same from where she had bent over backwards to avoid a strike from one of Naruto's clones. The silver haired man shook his head over his teams antics before he said, "alright, kids. The three of you have mastered both water and tree walking so I want the three of you to work on these," he held up the scrolls. "For the next ten days, alight," he questioningly ordered them. After he had received confirming nods from the trio he handed two each to Sakura and Sasuke, he then handed the scroll containing the most chakra draining jutsus in it to Naruto. The jutsus also, thankfully, only required the same level of chakra control that the blond haired boy currently had.

As Sakura held up her scroll she idly asked, "what about missions, are we still going to be doing them?"

Kakashi snorted before he said, "unless Tora escapes her owner again, the Hokage's ordered me to train you for ten days or until I feel you're ready for c-ranked missions." The silver haired man looked at them in bemusement before he said in a wry tone, "in the past five days we've completed as many d-ranked missions as most Genin teams do in a month. Quite frankly, we've don't most of the d-ranked missions more than once and some more than twice if the mission was easy enough. So for the next ten days we'll be working on those scrolls during training sessions and be careful with those scrolls, they once belonged to my father, got it?"

"We understand Kakashi-Sensei," Sasuke stated quietly, as Naruto and Sakura nodded firmly in agreement to the raven haired boys statement. With that the three began looking over the scrolls, Sasuke and Sakura's scrolls contained methods of fine tuning their chakra control and jutsus for healing. Naruto raised an eyebrow at a jutsu that allowed the user to transfer their chakra into a person who had almost completely depleted their chakra. The scroll referred to a scroll given to him by his Ryuu-Okasan, apparently the jutsu could be used in conjunction with a seal that allowed better integration of the foreign chakra.

As Naruto looked through the scroll he wondered if he could adapt the seal and jutsu to feed more chakra into Sasuke or Sakura to increase their chakra coils or reserves. He made a mental note to himself about looking the two scrolls over to see if he could or if he needed to modify it to do the job. He had already begun work on the comunication seals, he was trying to make it to where the seals could add more people as needed rather than having to redo the seals each time someone was added.

Kurama's left ear twitched as he watched a note appear on the wall across from his cage, thankfully the notes disappeared as soon as Naruto completed a task or whatever the note pertained to ceased to matter. Such as the note about not trusting anything that came out of Mizuki's mouth, as soon as Naruto beat him up then handed him over to the ANBU it vanished from the wall. The large fox yawned lazily before with a flash of red light Kurama's humanoid form replaced his fox form and he stretched lightly as he muttered to himself, "sometime you are far too much like your mother for my comfort."

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Two days later, after their training session for the day, Sasuke had invited Naruto and Sakura to look through his clan's library for things that could be useful for the three of them to learn. When the three entered the building Naruto didn't even bat an eye, he'd dragged Sasuke out of it too many times to be awed by it any longer. Sakura on the other hand was gaping at the bulging shelves that filled the room, most of the scrolls were hand written by the Uchiha clan after learning jutsus in battle with their Sharingan. It was plain from the look of the room that it would take a while to go through it all. The three sighed before they split up and headed in separate directions, Sakura found a scroll on different clone techniques while Sasuke had found some scrolls on lightning jutsu. Naruto was looking through a book that he found in a corner and was giggling to himself. It's title was: _**How to cheat at gambling using Shinobi techniques**_ , it a no name in the place of the author. On the blank page just before the back cover was written, ' _not that you need this but I thought you could use a laugh - Mikoto._ '

Two hours later, the three met up at the tables in the central area of the library, Sakura had brought the scroll on clone jutsus, if nothing else her and Sasuke might find them useful. She had also brought scrolls on Genjutsu, Taijutsu and Kenjutsu, Sasuke had brought all the scrolls on Ninjutsu he could carry. Naruto grinned as he put down scrolls on past missions of Uchiha clan members, some photo albums and what he thought was the most important, several summoning contracts for Sakura and Sasuke to look through to decide if they wanted to sign one.

Both of his teammates raised their eyebrows at the sight of the first two sets of items but grinned at the last set he put down onto the table. "Where did you find those, Naruto, I wasn't aware that the Uchiha Clan had any summoning contracts," Sakura exclaimed softly as she fingered the scrolls in front of her.

Naruto shrugged before he pointed at the albums and said, "they were sitting behind those. I don't know if it had been done deliberately or not but they were pretty well hidden, " he then looked at Sasuke with pleading eyes. "Can we please look through the albums before we get started on the other scrolls," he whined to the dark haired boy.

Sasuke sighed but nodded and Naruto cheered before he opened a randomly picked album from the pile of fifteen. The blond blinked at the first picture before he exclaimed in shock, "hey, that's Kakashi-Sensei!" The other two looked over his shoulder at the picture, they saw their sensei at the age of thirteen or fourteen standing next to a brown haired girl. She in turn was standing next to a dark haired boy wearing orange tinted goggles but what was most shocking was the way their picture mirrored Team Seven's official team picture. Because standing behind all three of the teens was Naruto's father, he had a soft smile on his face and a hand on each of the boys shoulder while his chin rested on the girls hair.

Sasuke carefully removed the picture from the book and flipped it over, on the back was penned in careful writing, _'Team Seven: Minato Namikaze, Obito Uchiha, Rin Nohara and Kakashi Hatake.'_ All three Genin members of the current team Seven gaped at the photo then each other in shock, "your father was the Yondaime Hokage," whispered Sasuke in a shocked tone as he stared at the shell-shocked blond. He then turned to the other photo albums as he murmured softly, "I wonder what other surprises these books hold…"

Sakura's green eyes narrowed as she pulled the open album over to her and said with determination in her voice, "I don't know, but what do you say that we find out." She then put the picture of Kakashi's teammates and sensei back into it's place before she flipped the page, the next picture showed Naruto's mother with a young Itachi in her lap. Both were grinning at the camera while they were holding some pocky in their hands, the grey eyed woman was playfully tugging at the pocky that Itachi was holding as if trying to steal it from him. On the page across from it was a picture of Naruto's parents, Kakashi's father and a Seven year old Kakashi, the picture, unknown to the trio, had been taken by a clone of Naruto's mother. It showed the four lazing about on the grass both men were resting their head on her shoulders while Sakumo had his hand on her lower abdomen and Minato had his resting just over Sakumo's hand. Kakashi had his forehead resting on Kushina's right hip, his father was curled on his side and protectively around his only son, the silver haired boy was clearly asleep and snoring lightly since his mask was down. Kushina, on the other hand, was looking at the three of them fondly, one hand was ruffling and carding through Kakashi's hair while the other was laid over the hands of the two men.

When the three flipped over the picture, all three saw the note on the back and read it aloud, _"the Crimson Blade with her Silver Wolf, her Yellow Fox and their White Pup."_

Sasuke cocked his head to the side as he said, "well this would explain as to why Naruto's parents are lying with Kakashi-Sensei's fathers remains." At that comment his two teammates glanced at him oddly, upon noticing the looks he said, "it's plain to see that your parents and Kakashi-Sensei's father were more than mere friends." When the blank looks persisted after his explanation the Uchiha rolled his eyes at them as he said in exasperation, "never mind, I'll explain in depth later just what I meant by that. Let's look through the rest of the albums later and get to work on these," he gestured to the piles of scrolls as he spoke.

Naruto shrugged before he said, "sure, you and Sakura should go through the summoning scrolls to see if one of them might suit you," he gestured at the pile of scrolls as he had spoken. With that having been said the blond picked up the clone jutsu scroll and hummed when he reached the exploding clone jutsu, while he was doing that the other two had started going through the summoning contracts.


	4. Chapter Three: Of Arrivals and Caravans

**Chapter Three:** _Of Arrivals and Caravans_

* * *

 

Kushina watched in undisguised amusement as Rodolphus and Shisui danced around each other, the Uchiha Clan had arrived two days before. Soon afterward, the pair was introduced to each other; everyone except the pair could tell that they were interested in each other. Most of the Clan had come close to fainting when they realized that Itachi was pregnant, Mikoto had taken one look at her eldest child then squealed in happiness before she latched onto her husband as she said, "we're going to be grandparents. Isn't that wonderful, Fukaku," so far the Head of the clan had been firmly in denial, he still stated that the only reason for him losing consciousness was due to lack of oxygen not shock.

Kushina shook her head over the way they were acting but the pair would have time since she overheard the Shunshin expert asking permission to remain on Elysian Isle until Kushina returned to school. Fukaku had granted the request sine the red haired witch had told them that if they wanted to they could stay on the Isle for a while before they returned to the village. As she watched the pair, she idly wondered how Shisui would take finding out that he was flirting with the reincarnation of the Nadaime Hokage. She had the feeling that he would be rather shocked before he'd begin flirting again, the only reason no one had told Shisui about that fact was due to Kushina wanting him to get to know Rodolphus without any preconceptions.

Their antics with each other was almost as amusing as watching the Prewitt twins try to make their pale haired mate blush, even Uryu had laughed at the way the two men teased his father. Not that the teen's blue panther didn't cause the archer to blush but it seemed as if Grimmjow had decided that only he got to see his mate blushing since it rarely happened in public due to Grimmjow's teasing. Masaki was now a little over a year old same with Cassiopeia, Teddy however was barely four months old now. To Kushina's surprise, Mikoto was still pregnant; the dark haired woman had merely laughed and said while she rubbed her swelled abdomen gently, "the child is just being stubborn. Remember, Itachi was the same way, I carried him for nearly ten months as well, Kushina," she chided the red haired woman gently.

Kushina had been slightly reassured but quietly ordered Winky to keep a close and watchful eye on her other mistress for the rest of Mikoto's pregnancy. The worried house elf swiftly agreed with Kushina's order and dutifully kept an eye on her very stubborn dark haired mistress. After that, Kushina had relaxed slightly enough to allow her aunt, Mikoto, Molly and a few of the other women to take over some of the planning duties for the wedding. Thus allowing her to spend some more time with her fiancé, her parents, younger brother and with her Zanpakuto, Thanatos and Anubis had been sulking because she hadn't had been able to visit them for a while due to the planning for the wedding.

In fact, she was currently babysitting Teddy for the day and as she held him, she thought to herself, _'I almost can't believe I'm a big sister twice over. I wonder how my Kimi-Otouto is…'_ She frowned worriedly; she knew that he was safe since the King had promised her that if something happened to her baby brother he'd have her informed immediately. As if sensing her turmoil Teddy changed his hair to bright red and his eyes to a grayish blue, it seemed that even Teddy already realized that blue-grey eyes tended to calm her down. She laughed when she realized that Teddy almost looked like the baby version of her first brother, considering just who their parents were the reincarnations of that wasn't actually very surprising.

Teddy had giggled when Kushina tickled him along his ribs and pouted when she ceased her attack but smiled when she had scooped him up as she said, "how about some lunch, little bear?" As she walked back to her and Kisuke's villa she silently wondered if she could convince Iruka to allow Teddy to sign the Bear contract when he turned eleven. After she fed her brother his lunch she laid him down for his nap as she laid him to sleep she hummed an old Uzumaki clan lullaby, the exact same one that she had sang to Naruto while she was carrying him. She carded her fingers through her brothers black hair, short though it was, and watched as his sleepy gold eyes closed. She decided to meditate and visit her inner world.

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Kushina appeared just outside of the version of Konoha that she created within her inner world; she eyed the wall carefully as she checked it over for any imperfections that could cause it to crumble due to an attack. She smiled smugly when she noticed that the defensive wall was flawless as usual, the summoning seals on it were also perfect as she could make them, if anything or anyone came near the wall and did not belong there then the seals would summon Anubis' army as well as a certain surprise. However either one of the two Zanpakuto spirits could easily stop the seals from summoning as they did with Voldemort. As she gazed at the wall with smug superiority both of the spirits leaned over the wall and beamed when they saw their mistress standing below them, "good day, my lady," the pair cried out in unison.

Her eyes flicked upward to see Thanatos leaning against Anubis' shoulder and grinning impishly at her, Anubis' gold eyes gleamed with happiness at seeing her, and she sighed as she made a mental note to never neglect her Zanpakuto again. If they were this happy to see her it meant that, she seriously neglected them and that ran the risk of them becoming discontent with her, something that no soul reaper ever wanted to have happen to them. She chuckled lightly as she opened her arms to them as if saying, _'where's my hug,'_ both spirits jumped off the wall and hugged her, Thanatos was along her left while Anubis was plastered along her right side. Both had their faces buried in the junction of her neck and shoulder while breathing in her scent, she ran her fingers through their hair as she murmured, "I'm sorry for not coming to visit my dears, there is no excuse for my neglect of you."

They both shot their heads up as they protested incoherently to her words, she placed her hands over their mouths as she said firmly, "it was neglect, no matter how much you excuse my behavior, in my mind, and I neglected you for days on end." Both spirits glanced at each other and sighed but nodded in a resigned fashion, when their mistress got that look in her eyes nothing ever changed her mind. She ran her hand down their cheeks, Thanatos' right cheek and Anubis' left cheek, as she said, "now that we've gotten that out of the way… How about we have a little siesta while we watch the clouds, hmm," she asked as she drew her fingers through their hair fondly.

The two men glanced at each other before they grinned and chorused, "that sounds perfect, my lady," they both then led her to the Hatake Clan compound whereupon all three laid out on the grass. Both spirits cuddled up neck to her and listened as she murmured what she thought the clouds looked like until her murmuring died down, when the two looked she was sleeping peacefully. Both smiled happily at her before they snuggled back down beside her, Thanatos had moved to where his head was resting on her stomach while Anubis had pillowed his on her outstretched left arm.

An hour later she woke up to find both spirits dozing in the same places they had been when they had snuggled back into her, although most Shinigami merely spoke to their Zanpakuto spirits while they meditated to achieve the proper harmony needed between the spirit and Shinigami for the best relationship. Kushina had found that all that was needed between her and the two spirits who lived in her inner world was merely time together, with how busy she'd been she had been neglecting to meditate and spend time with the two spirits. Thus, she had been depriving them of the physical contact that they seemed to need from her in order to be as happy and content as possible, if merely speaking had helped any then the conversations she'd had with them throughout the daytime hours would have been enough.

Now after a single hour in her prescence the pair radiated contentment, pleasure and peace, she ran her fingers through their hair before she carefully extracted herself from their embrace. Once she had extracted herself, she watched in amusement as the pair of men snuggled with each other when they had been robbed of their mistresses body heat, sometimes they reminded her of Sakumo and Minato, especially when they were in the prescence of Benihime. Anubis was much like Minato while Kushina would freely admit that Thanatos was very much like Sakumo, she had been surprised by how much Benihime had reminded her of herself. However, when she had told Ichigo about it he had theorized that a part of Kisuke had missed his wife dearly even if he couldn't consciously remember her and thus the part of his soul that did remember her eventually became Benihime.

With a slight smile she pulled her cloak off and enlarged it to cover both spirits, she didn't want them to believe that she didn't intend to come back if they woke up and she was gone but she wanted to check on something. She made her way outside of the village and through the forest; she ended her walk by staring at the mouth of the cave that she enlarged earlier in the year. She noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to look at it, she wasn't surprised to find that the movement was in fact the manifested form of her dragon animagus form. The large sinuous dragon wound its way through the trees and dipped it's frilled and spiked head down to her, it purred lightly as she scratched it just under it's chin. "Hello there my pretty one, are you as curious as I am about the strange dragon in the cave," she asked it as she caressed it along it's throat.

It purred as it nodded, and she huffed a laugh before she said, "I'm going to go check on our guest, do you want to come along," she ran her hand down it's snout as she asked. It snorted at the light caress before it nodded and nuzzled her along her neck before it began walking up to the entrance to the caverns that Kushina had made for it and the other dragon. She shook her head and followed the whiskered dragon, she watched in amusement as it peered around the curves before it snaked it's way through each of the chambers before they reached the final chamber with the other dragon slumbering in it.

Her animagus instincts stayed back at the entrance to the cavern while she walked inside of it, it grumbled lightly to itself, as she got closer to the large black and gold dragon. The sleeping dragon snorted lightly before it moved it's head to where it was tucked under it's right wing, Kushina smiled softly before she reached out and ran her hand along the leading edge of it's wing. To her and her dragon forms surprise, the wing lifted up and a single eye stared at her sleepily, it yawned at her before it swiped a lick across her cheek. She scrunched her nose and closed her left eye as it licked up her cheek, she gently pushed it away from her face as she said, "that tickled, you silly thing."

It chuffed a laugh-like growl before it lowered it head onto it's forepaws as it stared up at her curiously as if wondering just who she was and why she was in front of it. She smiled down at it as she said happily, "my name is Kushina and that," she pointed at her dragon form hovering in the entrance, "is Kitakaze." Kitakaze purred a hello at the other dragon as it approached from behind Kushina, the black and gold dragon merely chirped a soft reply to the purr.

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Forty minutes later, Kushina strolled into the village; she had left her animagus form curled up with the slightly larger, or rather bulkier, dragon. The pair had been snoozing when she had left them and when she passed by the cavern with the seals over the entrance it seemed as if the cave had whispered to her, " _soon, little one, soon, you'll know what I contain."_

Now she walked back to the Hatake compound to find her Zanpakuto still snoozing away, she knelt down next to them and lightly shook Thanatos' shoulder. He came awake with a soft snort and peered up at her quizzically, Anubis had awoken when Thanatos had moved slightly which jostled the slumbering spirit. As the darker colored man rubbed his gold eye he asked, "what is it, Mistress," he then stretched slightly from his position next to the winged spirit.

"I'm going to have to return back to consciousness, Teddy will be waking up soon and he will be wanting to know why his big sister is just sitting on the floor and not paying any attention to him." She said as she ruffled both spirits hair before she said with a small smile, "I'll see you both tomorrow, so behave you two." Both men snickered but nodded in agreement to her admonishment as they watched her fade from sight.

When she opened her eyes she was relieved to find that Teddy was still sleeping and breathed a sigh of relief, some days her little brother would only sleep for an hour and a half max during the day. Nevertheless, on other days he'd sleep for up to three hours, something that made his parents very grateful but they dreaded the day when he'd be able to stay awake all day but not be going anywhere. She gently ruffled his hair as she remembered the day that the Uchiha clan had finally arrived and Rodolphus' reaction to meeting Shisui for the first time.

Kushina, Kisuke, the Lestrange brothers along with several others stood along the edges of a large clearing as they waited for the Portkey's given to the Uchiha clan to activate. After twenty minutes of them waiting, the clearing was suddenly filled with twenty-one people, all of them had dark hair and black eyes. Ron, Hermione and Kisuke recognized them all from their visit to the Uchiha village during Yule. Kushina flashed a smile at the group as she said, "I take it that the rest if the clan is watching the village and minding the kids."

Although her words were a statement and not a question, Mikoto had nodded as she said, "exactly, although they did wish to be here for the wedding. It was decided that we couldn't leave the village and Naruto unguarded. After all, if he calls for us we have to be able to reach him quickly, he understands to only call us if it's an emergency." The pregnant woman gave them all a decisive stare as she stated firmly, "the Uchiha clan remembers and takes it's promise to it's kith and kin seriously. We vowed to protect the Uzumaki heir even if it should cost us our lives to defend him because unlike Madara Uchiha, we are forever loyal to our Sister Clan."

Kushina held up her hands defensively as she said in a placating tone, "alright, I get it, the entire clan wanted to come watch me get married but they felt that the village and Naruto needed protection." She then stepped forward and hugged her friend as she said happily, "it's good to see you, Koto-Chan, hopefully that kid of yours is ready to greet the world soon." The red haired teen moved backwards slightly so she could point a stern finger at Mikoto's abdomen as she said, "as long as it's not during the ceremony or my honeymoon."

She then smirked as she shot a rapacious look at Kisuke before she purred in a velvety tone that had made quite a few people shift uncomfortably, "after all, I plan to fully enjoy having Kisuke all to myself." To a few of the watching people's shock, the blond man in question blushed slightly at her tone and words, he had opened his customary fan to hide his flushed face from sight. She had then turned back to the Uchiha's to greet the rest, after she had let go of Mikoto she had promptly hugged Fukaku who had, upon being grabbed, plastered a long suffering look on his face. Upon seeing the look, Kushina played the bratty little sister card and gave him a loud kiss on his right cheek, the dark eyed man scrunched his nose and rubbed at the cheek with a disgusted look on his face.

She then turned to the teen standing beside them and hugged him tightly as she said, "it's good to see that you came Shisui, I was hoping you would since both Kisame and Itachi said they'd come to the wedding." Kushina winked at the clan as she said in a conspiring tone, "the two of them have a surprise for you all." At that comment, the Uchiha's gave her an odd look while Kisuke, who she had told almost immediately about Itachi's pregnancy, gave a muffled groan as he closed his eyes.

Completely ignoring all the looks she had received from everyone she had turned to two men standing near Fukaku and hugged them both as she said, "Kazuko, Ritsuki, it's good to see you two." She then pulled back and looked Ritsuki in the eye as she said slyly, "I see that your baby has been born. What did you name it and was it a boy or a girl," she asked as she stepped even further back from the pair.

Ritsuki smiled at her before he said happily, "our child was a girl and we named her, Hanako, she's staying with her aunt for the next week or so. She was born on January fifteenth so she's six months old now," he stated proudly as Kazuko hugged the slighter man around the waist from behind. Kazuko had a more muscled build than Ritsuki since they had different fighting styles, Kazuko preferred heavy hitting while Ritsuki would all but dance around his opponents.

Kushina had smiled before she gave a woman a hug then punched the shoulder of the man standing next to her as she said, "hello, Kaminari, Naoyuki, glad to see you could make it." She then knelt so she could look the child standing between them in the eye as she said formally, "thank you for attending my wedding, Isoko-Chan."

As the young girl blushed and murmured a reply, her parents smiled at the red haired witch before Kaminari said, "it's our pleasure to be invited, Kushina-San. After all, very few people witness your first wedding and only one Uchiha had attended it, for so many of us to be given a chance to witness your second wedding is a great honor." The thirty-five year old woman had then bowed formally to the younger woman as did her husband. Kushina restrained herself from telling her for the two hundredth time that her and Minato's wedding had been a secret for many reasons.

One reason being that her baby brother was going to give her away and she didn't want anyone to know that the Head of the Uzumaki clan was still alive. Their father had barely handed the Headship over to the then thirteen year old when the village had been destroyed. Both Kushina and Kimihiro had been devastated when they had received news that Uzushiogakure was demolished as well as the fact that very few of their clan had made it out alive. Yet another reason was due to the fact that Minato wanted to protect any future children they would have, if no one except for those most trusted knew of their marriage then the parentage of Kushina's children could only be speculated not confirmed with any degree of certainty. The final reason was one that neither she nor Minato had ever spoken of afterward except via shared looks and grief stricken silences.

Kushina had then cheerfully greeted the rest of the small group before she had turned to the silent watchers behind her and as she introduced the Uchiha's to them she gestured toward each person. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Sayuri and her spouse Tomomi," she had gestured at a pair of women, they appeared to be in their late twenties to early thirties. She then went down the line and stood between two couples, she placed one hand on each of the women's shoulders as she said, "this is Izumi and her husband, Gakuto." She had tilted her head to the couple on her right hand side as she had spoken before she tilted her head to the right as she said, "this is Chiaki and Daichi." She smirked as she commented smugly, "they've been together for twenty-eight years now, they're getting old!"

The older pair growled and Daichi said hotly, "I'm only forty-five! I'm the exact same age that you would be if you hadn't have gotten yourself killed eleven years ago!"

Kushina snickered as she ruffled the hair of the other child as she said happily, "this young man here is Tadahiro," she gestured toward the man and woman behind the seven year old as she said, "his beautiful mother, Risa," the young woman blushed at the compliment. She then gestured at the man as she said, "and this handsome young man is his father, Kaimu." She had then clapped her hands together as she beamed and said, "and that's all of the Uchiha clan who will be attending the wedding."

As she turned around to introduce the others to the Uchiha clan, Kushina snapped her fingers together as she said, "whoops, almost forgot, Obito Uchiha will be attending as well but he won't be here for a couple more days." At that statement all of the Uchiha's blinked their eyes before they remembered how Kushina had served the Shinigami after she'd died and thus it wouldn't be unlikely that she had seen Obito after his death. They turned their attention to the group of people around the clearing as Kushina introduced them to the clan members.

"This is my Papa, Remus Lupin and my Dad, James Potter," she said as she gestured first to the brown haired man with gold eyes on her left then to the dark haired hazel eyed man on her right. She then scooped up the baby from the brown haired man's arms as she cooed, "and this adorable boy is my baby brother, Theodore 'Teddy' Potter-Lupin." Several of the Uchiha's clan members nodded at the three in greeting so she moved on as she said, "this is Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange. Rabastan is the younger brother and Rodolphus is the elder," she added as she gestured at the two men. She had then winked as she commented slyly, "Rabastan is dating my Uncle Isshin, actually to be more precise he's the reincarnation of my Aunt Masaki so really there is not getting between them." She had paused for a moment as she moved down the line, "Rodolphus on the other hand just got divorced from his crazy as hell wife from an arranged marriage."

At that Shisui had noticeably perked up, to those who knew him well it had been plain to see that he expected that like his younger brother, Rodolphus would be taken already. Kushina had paused for a moment as she contemplated the pair before she moved onto standing next to Kisuke, who in turn had Hermione and Kenpachi on one side while Ron and Rukia was on the other. "I'm sure you all recognize Hermione, Ron and my dearest Kisuke, so I won't reintroduce them, the man standing next to Hermione is Kenpachi Zaraki, who is absolutely my most favorite sparring partner." At that Kenpachi had grinned and chuckled darkly while he looked smug before he nodded a greeting to the boggled Uchiha clan members. "The young lady next to Ron is Rukia Kuchiki, she's the younger sister of Byakuya Kuchiki, who is the Head of their house, which is one of the four great noble clans of the Seireitei." Thanks to Kisuke telling tales of the Seireitei during their visit to the Uchiha village, all of the visiting clan members knew that she was an extremely important person.

As the clan mingled slightly Kushina had instructed Winky and a few other house elves to lead the Uchiha's to their guest quarters on the Isle when they seemed as if they wished to rest. Kushina looked up after she'd given the last of the instructions to the elves in time to see Rodolphus be approached by Shisui, their pair were close to her so she leaned against a tree and blatantly eavesdropped on them. "Hello," Shisui said softly as he neared the ex-spy, Rodolphus glanced up at the younger man at the greeting.

Involuntarily, at the soft greeting, Rodolphus' lips quirked into a small smile before he nodded at the younger man as he said, "hello back, Shisui. That is your name, correct," he asked as he tilted his head to the side inquisitively.

The dark eyed man nodded as he smiled and said, "yes, and your name is Rodolphus," his words were a statement more than a query. He then looked at the other man curiously for several moments before he asked softly, "have you ever been to the Elemental Countries? I hate to ask such an odd question but you seem very familiar to me somehow…"

Rodolphus and Kushina both blinked at that before the wizard shook his head as he answered, "no, I've never been there as far as I know." He hesitated slightly before he said as he glanced over at Shisui as he leaned back against the tree, "but I know what you mean, you seem vaguely familiar to me as well." He sighed in frustration before he muttered, "Merlin help me but I don't know why you seem to be so familiar, it's as if I've met you before but I haven't."

Kushina tilted her head to the side as she tried to remember what she'd been told by Hisana back when Hisana had been captain of the King's Guard about soul mates. As she closed her eyes to concentrate, she finally recalled it, " _ **soul mates can generally recognize each other, even if they've never met before they will seem familiar to one another. Some start fighting with the other half of their souls because they don't understand the pull they feel to the other person. Once they realize just why they are feeling this pull and stop fighting it, they will feel calm and centered as if they'd be content to stay with the other person forever…"**_ Hisana had gone on for ages on the topic but Kushina shook her head out of the memory as she smirked to herself and smugly thought to herself, _'I guess I don't have to worry about Uncle 'Rama being alone in this life.'_ After a few more moments of listening in on the pair she shoved away from the tree and made her way over to Itachi's parents. She tapped her pregnant friend on the shoulder as she said, "Itachi and Kisame's portkey should be activating soon."

Mikoto glanced over her tapped shoulder at Kushina and nodded as she smiled happily as Fukaku commented, "good, that means we'll finally get an answer as to why they haven't visited the village for a while. We've been getting worried about them," he hadn't noticed how Kushina had bit her lower lip to keep from smirking or laughing. She had remembered Mikoto's comment from the first time she'd visited the village concerning Fukaku's stance on Kisame and Itachi's relationship.

A minute later, a certain shark like nin appeared in the clearing with a dark eyed companion, however to the surprise of the entire clan, Hermione, and Ron, his companion was a woman not a man. Kushina stepped forward and hugged the pair as she said, "hello again, Itachi-Chan, Kisame-Kun. I'm glad to see that the two of you could make it," she then stepped back from them.

The woman laughed lightly before she said, although it was a feminine voice it still held Itachi's usual tones, "I wouldn't miss your wedding for the world, Aunt 'Shina."

Kisame nodded in agreement before he commented, "besides, I wanted to meet your usual sparring partner as well as find out if I can get a few more lessons from you."

Kushina snorted lightly before she beckoned for Kenpachi to come over to the three, the scarred man prowled over after he gave Hermione a light kiss. After he glanced at the red haired woman curiously she said, "Kenpachi, I'd like you to meet my godchild, Itachi and his mate, Kisame Hoshigaki. I highly suggest that you recruit the pair of them into the eleventh division when they die, that is if they don't chose to be reincarnated immediately."

Kenpachi glanced at the pair and raised an eyebrow at the way they held themselves, he knew better than to disregard Kushina's suggestion, she was almost never wrong and when she was it was always about people she didn't know well. As he looked the pair over Kushina had turned to Kisame and said, "this is Kenpachi Zaraki, Captain of the Eleventh division." Both Akatsuki members nodded in greeting to the large Captain, who gave them a nod back before he drew Kisame away to engage him in a conversation about Kisame's sword, Samaheda.

As the two men talked about swords, Itachi's parents came over and Mikoto asked her eldest child, "why are you staying in your female form? You're among friends," as she spoke the pregnant woman frowned in confusion at what she thought was stubbornness.

At her question both Itachi and Kisame froze, a fact that neither Kenpachi nor Hermione failed to notice but both of Itachi's parents had over looked due to worry. Itachi eventually sighed before she murmured, "because I can't change back, I'm pregnant," the transformed man stared her parents in the eye as she spoke. "As far as we can figure I should be due in late November to mid December, unless my child is a stubborn as my sibling and is late," Itachi said slowly.

Mikoto blinked slowly at the information before she said happily as she hugged Fukaku, "oh, isn't this wonderful news, Fukaku! We're going to be grandparents!" After which she let go of her husband to hug their son turned daughter, the Head of the clan fainted, which caused his eldest child and wife to laugh.

Kushina's eyes gleamed mischievously as she had murmured aloud, "I wonder how he'll explain this later on…" Her words caused more than a few of the people around her to laugh, Mikoto rolled her eyes and directed Winky to pop her husband to their guest quarters. She then turned to her oldest child and silently commanded her to follow as she led her out of the clearing. Kisame had frowned slightly but didn't follow instead he had continued his conversation with Kenpachi over the merits of different swords.

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While his clan was arriving on Elysian Isle, which wasn't actually an Isle but an island half the size of Australia, Sasuke was blocking a hit from Naruto while Sakura was practicing a medical jutsu on a fish. All of the jutsus' that were in Naruto's scroll were for grievous injuries and thus really couldn't be practiced. After all, Naruto was hardly about to let his teammates get gravely injured just to allow him to practice on them. Thankfully, the jutsu's in the scroll didn't really require any practice, merely an over abundance of chakra, which Naruto had in spades. Thus allowing Naruto to spar with one teammate while the other practiced their medial ninjutsu.

Yesterday had been not only the last day of their enforced training but also Sasuke's birthday, the entirety of team Seven had spent the day in Naruto's favorite training ground. The blond had asked Dobby to prepare the other boy's favorite foods and snacks for the day and night long campout in training ground number forty-four. The house elf had been delighted by the request and happily complied to it. To Sasuke's and his teammates surprise a young toad appeared during the small celebration in order to give him a present from a mysterious person. The present had been a scroll about a legend and a map, along with the two objects was a note it read: _'if you have gained your mothers curiosity along with her looks, then this should keep you entertained for a while - K.U.'_

After the toad had given him the gift it had vanished in a puff of smoke, Kakashi had raised an eyebrow at that before he told the three about his plan to ask for a C-Ranked mission the next day. Once he had finished speaking all three Genins had glomped him with cheers, so now the Genins off team Seven were waiting to find out just what sort of mission they would be getting.

Kakashi had strolled into their usual training grounds to find Sakura and Naruto trading blows, the pair were practicing with wooden t\raining swords, it was mostly so their muscles would develop the proper memory of the moves. He chuckled silently as the pair both missed a move, the two laughed at their mistake but a few moments later they were back at it again. The silver haired man looked around for Sasuke, he found him up a tree, upside down, apparently mediating.

After a few more moments of watching his kids train, he cleared his throat, all three looked at him quizzically before they realized that he got them a mission to do. Sasuke dropped down from the tree while Sakura and Naruto put away their practice swords. Once all of his students stood in front of him, Kakashi said, "we've been given a mission to escort a caravan to Kumo then we're to take another caravan to Suna. I suggest that you ready your packs as we'll be leaving in four hours, so get going." At that statement all three Genin yelped before they darted away to go pack and, mostly in Sakura's case, inform those who might worry about them that they'd be gone for a while.

Naruto entered his apartment and said, "Dobby, I'm going on a mission outside of the village so I won't be home for a while." Dobby poked his head into the living room from the kitchen and glanced at his little master with curiosity etched on his features. "Can you go tell Ryuu-Okasan so she won't worry if she were to come visit and I'm not home," he asked as he started gathering the supplies he'd need for the long mission. The tent that he'd been given by Ryuu was already sealed and it was supplied with everything four people could need for five months. This included: cooking utensils and cooking ware, bathing essentials for all four members of team Seven, clothes (again for all four members.)

There was also dining ware packed in the tent along with non perishable food, his extra set of seal making materials were also packed inside of he tent. The tent had a kitchen, a living room, three bathrooms and four bedrooms. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi had already decided that they would use the tent for al future missions. If for any reason they were escorting a single person the boys could double up in a room, besides the couch pulled out into a bed and there were more than enough futons to use.

The tent had been made using several spells and seals, all of the things that the spells did could be brushed off with the sealing explanation, Kakashi had examined the seals for several days before he threw up his hands and gave up. After his study was finished he had said, _"it's your mother's work alright, she was a master at Sealing. Neither Jiraiya nor the Fourth Hokage could hold a candle to your mother when she put her mind to it._ " Kakashi had then scratched the back of his head as he said, _"as far as I can tell the tent is as safe as can be to use."_

Naruto shook himself out of the memory before he sealed several scrolls into the seals on his arm wraps and forehead protector. He heard Dobby saying, "very well, little master, I'll tell Mistress Ryuu that you're on a mission." With that said the house elf popped away to tell Kushina that her son was on a C-Ranked mission, soon after Dobby left Naruto ran out the door and shut it behind him. He knew that Dobby would make sure that no one entered his apartment while he was gone.

He had met up with Sakura and Sasuke just outside of the Uchiha compound, both were waiting for him and they had their supplies in scrolls that were inside their weapon pouches. Kakashi dropped down beside them as they made their way to the gates, waiting just outside of the gates were seven wagons pulled by horses. Four of the wagons carried the supplies while the other three were carrying the people of the caravan, a young woman, she seemed to be around Kakashi's age, was speaking with Kotetsu and Izumo. All three had looked up at team Seven's approach, both Chuunins greeted the team cheerfully and Kakashi's team halted a few feet away before the silver haired man said, "team Seven reporting for escort duty."

The woman smiled at the group and said cheerfully, "good day, Shinobi-Sans. I am Miaka Nanami of the Nanami Caravan, it's a pleasure to meet you. Might I inquire your names," she asked as she glanced at Kakashi before she said to him, "you seem familiar to me, Shinobi-San," she tilted her head to him as she had spoken.

Kakashi blinked for a moment in stunned silence before he said or rather ordered, "introduce yourselves to the Caravan, Kiddos."

Sakura had stepped forward first, she was wearing what had become her usual outfit of a red shirt, dark pants and a work apron skirt with slits up the middle of the front and back. She had bowed to the group by the caravans and said in a formal tone, "Sakura Haruno, Genin and Medic nin in training, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Sasuke stepped forward next, he also was wearing his usual outfit of shorts with a dark shirt over a lighter colored one, he had switched out his arm and leg warmers for wraps like Naruto. He then bowed to them formally as he said, "Sasuke Uchiha, Genin of team Seven, I'm also being trained in medical ninjutsu but I'm not in training to be a medic nin. I wish to become an adept at Genjutsu not medical ninjutsu," he the stepped backwards to stand beside Sakura. On the other side of the pink haired girl was Naruto while on the other side of the blue eyed boy was Kakashi.

The blond bounced forward, today he was wearing sea green pants with a sky blue shirt, his arm wraps were sea green while his leg wraps were sky blue. He was wearing a black jacket with the usual orange flames at the bottom, the hem of the jacket ended at his mid calf. He had flashed the members of the caravan a rather familiar smile before he gave them a short bow and said, "Naruto Uzumaki, Konoha's number one knuckleheaded Ninja and prankster." He pointed behind him at his sensei as he said with a toned down smile, "and that's our Sensei, Kakashi Hatake!"

At that Miaka blinked before she asked Kakashi, "are you related to a man named Sakumo?" She then asked Naruto without allowing Kakashi to answer the first question, "and are you related to a woman named Kushina?"

At that Kakashi said, "Kushina was his mother and Sakumo was my father," he cocked his head to the side as he asked, "why do you ask?"

Miaka looked at them before she said, "because both of your parents once guarded my caravan when I was a little girl and they saved it from bandits. Your father rescued me from a bandit that was holding me hostage, my father later gave yours a Tanto in thanks for saving me. As far as I'm aware it was a chakra channeling blade, Father had been unable to find a buyer for it so he figured that it'd be perfect as a thank you gift for a Shinobi."

Kakashi pulled out a scroll from his weapons pouch and unsealed an item from it, the item was a Tanto as well as it's harness. As he unsheathed the blade he had murmured, "I had always wondered just how he got this, he carried it on every mission he went on until his death seventeen years ago." Kakashi huffed a quiet laugh before he said happily as he sheathed the weapon, "he gained quite the reputation with this blade."

Miaka nodded as she said, "the White Fang, he was called as far as I can recall, it was actually on their mission escorting us that your father and young Naruto's mother gained their nicknames."

"I suspect that our mission to escort your group will be very informative to us," the nin said as he strapped on his father's blade. Even though he had used it for years, Kakashi still thought of the blade as being his fathers same with Obito's eye. He then looked at his kids and said, "get into formation and lets go," he then nodded at Miaka who had hopped into the lead wagon and the group set off.

Naruto had formed a group of thirty shadow clones and set them off to patrol ahead, to both sides as well as behind the group. Kakashi was keeping pace with the lead wagon while Sasuke was guarding the wagon that was just one behind the silver haired Jounin. Naruto guarded the one that was a wagon behind Sasuke's while Sakura guarded the rear wagon, above them in the tree tops were seven clones and atop the three wagons not guarded by the Genins were shadow clones.

The large group traveled until dusk before they had stopped to make camp, much like his mother before him, Naruto used his clones to gather the firewood and water as well as to catch some fish for dinner. Team Seven had decided to take advantage of the shadow clones and each person would use the jutsu while on duty, Sakura was able to make a maximum amount of five clones. Sasuke could manage about ten clones before he couldn't form anymore, Kakashi could form around twenty four clones before he had to stop. Of course none of them could match Naruto in the clone department, since he could easily form one hundred clones, heck he had to summon a thousand clones before he could feel the drain on his chakra.

Naruto would have the first watch, Kakashi would take the second watch, Sasuke took the third and Sakura had final watch. Of course the four had an advantage that most bandits wouldn't expect, they all had summons. Naruto, of course, had his cheetahs and snakes, Sasuke had settled upon the Hawk contract while Sakura had taken the Badger contract, Kakashi had his Ninken. While dinner was prepared, Naruto's clones had set up the tent and once the caravan had settled in for the night team Seven, except for Naruto, went to sleep.

Three hours later Naruto woke up Kakashi for his watch, the silver haired man had awoken abruptly but nodded as he sent the blond to bed. He then formed fifteen clones and summoned his pack before he sent off his clones. He had a boring three hour shift before he woke up Sasuke for his shift, the Uchiha had merely said, "hnn," before he got up and formed his ten clones. He summoned the more nocturnally inclined of his summons before he stood against one of the trees with his back toward the fire.

Sakura woke up about two minutes before her shift began, she made a simple breakfast for the camp then sent Sasuke to wake up their sensei and Naruto so they could all eat together. Team Seven had agreed to rotate the sleeping and watch times, whoever had the previous day's forth shift would get the first shift the next day and so on until the fourth watch from the first day was again fourth watch. Then they would roll some dice to decide the next five day's watch rotation this was to keep the rotation as random as possible.

Whichever person got the lowest number on the dice was the first shift, the second lowest got second shift and so forth. At about six thirty AM everyone in the camp had eaten and the camp was dismantled, fifteen minutes after that the caravan along with it's escort was heading northeast toward the Land of Hot water. It would take at least one and a half weeks to reach the land of Hot Water but only around six days to reach the border between Frost and Kumo. The majority of the missions time would be spent on the journey from Kumo to Suna. While they were in Suna the silver haired man was to take the plans for the next Chuunin exam that would be held in Konoha to the Kazekage.

The team kept their previous positions from the day before save that Sakura and Sasuke had switched places, the dark haired boy was now the one covering the rear of the caravan. One of Naruto's clones had dropped down onto the middle of the wagon that Sasuke was guarding and asked casually, "hey, Sasuke. Out of curiosity… are you going to use your Oiroke no jutsu form on any of our C-Ranked missions like you occasionally do our D-Ranked?"

At that question, a good deal of the caravan members gave each other odd looks that clearly were asking, _'just what is the Oiroke no jutsu? And what does it do?'_ Sasuke had huffed a laugh before he called up to the clone, "I might, but it'll really end up depending upon the mission we get sent on." The dark haired boy cocked his head to the side at the younger boy as he asked, "why did you want to know? Do you plan to use your form on any of our C-Ranked missions," the Uchiha inquired as he smirked up at the blond.

The sunshine blond grinned down at his teammate as he said, "of course, but like you said, whether or not I use it will depend upon the mission we're sent on." With that the clone dispelled itself and vanished in a puff of smoke, all three other members of team seven laughed at the way the clone had stuck it's tongue out at them before it vanished.

Kakashi glanced over his shoulder at the still chuckling girl behind him and called out, "Sakura," once he had her attention, Kakashi suggested, "tell Sasuke to summon a few hawks for recon duty and Naruto to summon a few of his cats."

She nodded before she relayed his message to the boys, Sasuke did as Kakashi asked and summoned five hawks, "take a look around for five miles of the surrounding area. After you're finished doing that report directly to me," the dark haired teen commanded softly. All five of the birds nodded at the command before they took off, as he was doing that Naruto had give the same order to a group of cheetahs wearing red headbands, the seven cats nodded before they raced off.

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Naruto cackled as the three Genins of team Seven attacked the bandits that attempted to raid the caravan, fourteen of his clones were guarding the caravan with Kakashi. The silver haired nin was grinning underneath his mask as this particular group of bandits was about to learn a lesson about how size and ages didn't matter to a Shinobi. A group of four men had surrounded Sakura, instead of cowering from them like they clearly expected her to, the pink haired girl had merely smiled at them. Her grin was bloodthirsty and a few took an involuntary step backward, she then soundly defeated them by using a single move each to incapacitate them.

Sasuke was a few feet away from her, he was using a combination of speed and flexibility to make quick attacks against the bandits, in one case he dropped into a handstand and with a quick move spun in a circle with his legs in a split. That move caused five bandits to fall unconscious, after one encounter with a group of bandit's the next group gasped in shock and fear. It wasn't until the small skirmish was over that Sakura cried out, "Sasuke, your eyes!"

At his confused look, one of the women of the caravan handed him a mirror, his eyes widened at the sight of black on red eyes staring back at him. It seem that during the small fight he had managed to activate his Sharingan. The Uchiha had numbly handed back the mirror to the woman before he grinned at his teammate and said happily, "I reactivated my Doujutsu!"

Kakashi chuckled before he said while he nodded, "indeed you did, Sasuke, that means that your training will become both easier and harder." At the confused glance that he received from his dark hared student he explained, "it'll be much easier for you to pick up ninjutsu and genjutsu. But on the other hand, if you attempt to use taijutsu or Kenjutsu moves that you just copied you could hurt yourself because it could take a lot of conditioning to do a move."

The silver haired man ruffled Sasuke's hair as he happily commented, "of course whatever training I give you, Sakura and Naruto will receive as well. After all, a team that trains together are able to fight together more efficiently then if they were trained separately," Sakura and Naruto groaned quietly. Somehow they just knew that Kakashi was going to train them into the ground the next chance he got which, thankfully, probably wouldn't be until they reached Suna.

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At the same time that her son and his teammates were fighting the group of bandits, Kushina was stepping out of the bath, as she dried herself off she glanced at her wedding attire. After she was completely dry she sat down and put on black fishnet stockings before she slipped on a pair of tabi, the stockings reached her mid-thigh. She then fastened her garter belt to the stockings before she put on her panties, she smirked as she wondered how Kisuke would react to her underwear choice on their honeymoon. Just after she had put on the top half of her underwear she heard a knock at her door, a quick sniff told her that it was her Aunt Lily. "It's just me," the green eyed witch called through the door, Kushina smirked but decided not to tell her that she already knew who it was.

"Come in, Aunt Lily," she called out over her shoulder as she padded over to her Juban, she ran careful fingers over the cream colored foxes and cranes on the white collar of the black kimono. Lily stepped into the room, no one had seen Kushina's wedding outfit yet but she had asked Rabastan, Ichigo and Isane to help her get dressed in it.

Her green eyes widened at the sight of the three kimono's, the one that Kushina was in front of was pure black with a white collar and dancing along the kimono were wolves, cranes and a single dragon. There were waves along the bottom edge in sea blue, the cranes and wolves were pure white while the dragon was red, gold and silver in coloration. The kimono beside it was a forest green with cream colored cranes embroidered on it, while beside that one was a sea blue kimono that was far longer than the other two. The last kimono was heavily stitched with pine trees, a stunning nine tailed fox that was red and black. It's tails were wrapped around the lower portion of the kimono while it's body lounged lazily across the hip and lower back area. Along the shoulders, upper arms, back and chest was a large serpent curled upon it's head was a sleeping cheetah, while peeking from behind the trees was a single lion and wolf.

Three minutes after Lily had arrived the three people that Kushina had asked to help her with the outfit arrived. Rabastan gave a low whistle at the kimono's before he ran a careful finger over the embroidery of the last kimono. As he fingered the nine tailed fox he had murmured, "I see you thought to include Kurama and Manda in this one."

"Of course," Kushina said as Isane and Ichigo began dressing her in the Juban, after they secured it she said, "I couldn't leave them out, the wolf is Sakumo," she added as she was clothed in the Kakeshita. Once it was perfectly in place and Rabastan helped her hold it there, the other two wrapped and tied the obi in a butterfly knot. Kushina had then gracefully knelt on a pillow and allowed her three helpers to put her hair in an elaborate hairstyle. They put a pair of jade needles in the bun for decoration since it was held up by magic, the jade objects were carved with cheetahs, snakes, wolves, toads and foxes.

She then rose from her kneeling position and put on her final kimono, the Uchikake, unlike the other two which were secured, the last kimono was allowed to drape open thus allowing the Kakeshita to be viewed. Kushina had put her zori on before she paced around the room to get used to both her restricted gait and her unfamiliar shoes. She had decided to forgo any makeup and the only concession she had made for a veil was a hooded pure white cloak that reached her waist. The deep hood hid her face from sight but she planned to remove the hood and cloak once she reached the dais.

As she stood in the middle of the room she took in a deep breath and held it for a minute before she let it out slowly, she kept doing that until she felt calm and centered. Both of her Zanpakuto spirits fully planned to escort to her fiance, Kushina had allowed her parents to decide which one would be accompanying her down the aisle.

A firm knock on the door signaled that it was time to go, Coyote, Isshin, Percy and Byakuya along with Remus were waiting outside the door when she opened it. Coyote bowed to Lily before he offered the red haired witch his right arm, Isshin had done the same with Rabastan along with Percy offering his hand to Isane. Byakuya had held out his left hand to Ichigo, the orange haired teen took his husband's arm as they watched Remus draw the hood over his daughter's head to cover her face. The first time anyone would lay eyes on her face would be when the cloak was taken off before the ceremony.

Outside of the villa was a carriage, it had three symbols on it, one was a spiral, yet another was the crest of the Deathly Hollows and the third was of a serpent eating its tail. Remus and Kushina entered the carriage, it was being pulled by deep black horses with blood red eyes and fangs. Once both people were seated the carriage began to move forward along the path that would take it to the area for the wedding.

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Kisuke was standing in front of the crowd of people waiting to see the wedding, unlike muggle weddings a couple could choose to forgo an officiator and merely have a crowd of witnesses. Although Albus and the Soutaicho would both be saying a few words neither of the old men would be acting in an official capacity. The captain of the Twelfth was dressed in the typical black Shihakusho of the shinigami but instead of wearing the twelfth division Haori, he wore one that had orange flames on the bottom edge. On the cuffs of the sleeves were the kanji for 'the yellow flash,' as well as 'the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha,' Kushina had gifted him with the Haori on his last birthday.

Which had incidentally, also happened to be the wedding anniversary for their previous life together, on the brides side of the guest chairs were most of the wizarding guests. On Kisuke's side were most of the Shinigami, most of the Uchiha's, the Visoreds and some of the Arrancar had rolled dice to figure out on which side they'd be sitting. Odd numbers meant that they would sit on Kushina's side while even numbers meant that they would sit on Kisuke's. The blond captain saw the four couples slip into their seats on Kushina's side of the room, he straitened up since that meant that Kushina was on her way.

Five minutes later the carriage pulled up and Remus got out, the werewolf held out his hand to help Kushina exit the carriage. She stepped out and quite a few eyes widened at the sight of her in the kimono's. Although he had decided to wear the Asian style wedding attire he hadn't expected her to wear this level of a kimono for their wedding. Remus walked her down the aisle where he handed her over to James who led her to Kisuke, with careful hands she removed her cloak and handed it to James.

Once he gathered the white cloak, James sat down next to Remus, they watched as both Albus and the Soutaicho stood up, the two old men then made their way to stand in front of the pair. "We are gathered here on the shore beside the sea beneath the sky to witness the bonding of these two souls, may fate smile brightly upon their marriage," they said as one before they sat back down in their seats. After they had returned to their previous positions all eyes focused on Kisuke and Kushina, who although they were facing each other it appeared as if they had purposefully left room for another person to stand.

Kushina took a breath before she said as she stared into his eyes, "I, Kushina Ruri Potter-Lupin do take thee, Kisuke Urahara to be my husband. I will be secure in the knowledge that thy will be one of my most cherished companions, a constant friend, my faithful partner in life and my love. On this special day, I give myself to you in the prescence of all those in attendance, I give thee my sacred promise to stay by your side as your beloved wife, in sickness and in health. In joy and in sorrow, as well as through good time and bad."

She paused for a moment before she continued, "I further promise to love thee without reservation, to comfort you in times of distress and to encourage you to achieve all your goals. To laugh with you and to cry with you, to grow with you in mind and in spirit, to always be open and honest with you." Her eyes softened as she ended her vows by saying, "and to cherish you for so long as our souls shalt exist."

She then held out a hand to Tadahiro, the boy handed her a rind and she held it up as she stated, "our love has given us wings and our journey together begins today. Kisuke, wherever the wind and my journey's might take me, know that I will always love you and stand by you as your wife. Please take this ring as a sign of my eternal love and devotion."

As she spoke she had held out the ring for him to either accept or deny, he held out his left hand as he said, "I accept thy vows, thy ring and the promises they hold." She slid the ring on his hand, it was made of platinum with a lightning bolt, a flame and a wave motif. The flames were in rose gold, a blue tinted metal for the waves and yellow gold for the lightning bolt.

As he cradled her right cheek with his left hand he said, "I, Kisuke Urahara do take thee, Kushina Ruri Potter-Lupin to be my wife. I will be secure in the knowledge that thy will be one of my most cherished companions, a constant friend, my faithful partner in life and my love." He took a deep breath before he continued by saying, "on this special day, I give myself to you in the prescence of all those in attendance. I give thee my sacred promise to stay by your side as your beloved husband, in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow swell as through good times and bad."

He, too, paused for a moment before he said in a solemn tone, "I further promise to love thee without reservation, to comfort you in times of distress and I will encourage you to achieve all your goals. To laugh with you and to cry with you, to grow with you in mind and in spirit, I will always be open and honest with you," as he spoke he smiled at her softly. As he did it was if Minato was staring at her instead of Kisuke as he ended with, "and I will cherish you for so long as our souls shalt exist."

He then held out his right hand to Tadahiro, the seven year old handed him a ring, the blond Captain held it up as he said, "our love has given us wings and our journey together begins today. Kushina, know that wherever the wind and thy journey's take you, I will always stand by your side as your husband. Please take this ring and the promise it holds," he held out the ring for her to either accept or to deny.

She held out her left hand as she said in a formal tone, "I accept thy vows, thy ring and the promises they hold." With a small smile he slid the ring upon her left ring finger, her ring was carved with the same motif as his and made of the same metals. Once her ring had slid into place a flash of light that was a mixture of red, yellow and white appeared, for a single moment a cheetah with a red tone to it's fur appeared next to Kushina, while a lion with a yellow mane appeared next to Kisuke and in the space between them was a white wolf.

Both of them smiled fondly at the wolf as it gave a silent howl while the lion roared and the cheetah purred, no one had been surprised at the appearance of the lion or cheetah. However, the appearance of the wolf caused quite a few eyebrows to be raised by the witnesses. Only the inner beasts of those bonding should appear, not even Albus had ever seen a bonding where the inner beast of a person not being bonded appeared.

And it was plain from how Kushina reacted that the appearence of the wolf was not unexpected because she merely had said, "I guess part of you decided to show up, my silver wolf."

Kisuke had nuzzled her silently before he said with a wry smile, "he always hated to disappoint you, my precious muse."

Her eyes flashed before she huffed quietly and said, "the only time he disappointed me was the only time I couldn't express my disapproval." Her eyes flashed again as she growled, "when I get my hands on him, he is going to get the dressing down of a lifetime after I smack him upside the head!"

Kisuke snorted before he muttered in her ear, "yeah, but then you'll be so happy to see him that you'll hug him and demand that he never do that to you ever again."

She sighed before she nodded in a resigned fashion as she murmured, "you're right of course, I never could stay angry at him for long." She huffed a soft laugh as she said, "and he knew it, of course he was the exact same way with me, he never could stay mad at me for long."

Upon noticing the odd glances they were receiving from the audience Kushina smiled before she said brightly, "enough reminiscing." Her gold eyes gleamed before she asked, "isn't there supposed to be a party of some sort after weddings?" She then grinned as she spread her arms and proclaimed, "then lets get this party started!"

The house elves cheered before they began preparing by bringing out tables, chairs, food and drink. For drinks they had several varieties: Butterbeer, soft drinks, juices and water for those underage. They had wine, Firewhiskey, several types of liquor and champagne for those of age to drink, by of age they meant for the age of maturity for the wizarding world. Kushina had the house elves prepare several different types of food for the party, the wedding cake that had been prepared was a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing, it was an eight tiered cake. Along each of the face was decorated with trees, foxes, toads, cheetahs, wolves, lions, dragons and snakes. On the sides of the top tier was a cheetah, a lion, a wolf, and a baby yellow fox with nine tails.

As Kushina and Kisuke cut the cake so they could feed a slice to each other, Mikoto flinched as she reflexively reached for her abdomen, she shook her head ruefully at her child's timing. Since her water had yet to break she opted to keep silent about her labor pains and sat down on a chair to rest her contractions weren't that close together yet so she knew she had time. After the cake had been cut and the slices fed as well as the two opening dances done, Kushina glanced at Mikoto and she noticed that her old friend flinched slightly every once and a while.

Her eyes widened as she realized that Mikoto must finally be in labor after nearly ten months of being pregnant, she went over and knelt beside her as she asked quietly, "is it time, Mikoto?"

Mikoto was breathing carefully, she kept her breathing measured before she said softly, "I think so… My water hasn't broken ye..!" Her words cut of with a soft cry as the lower portion of her kimono became soaked.

Kushina raised an eyebrow at her before she said with a thin smile, "sorry, Koto, but I think your child disagrees with your assessment. Come on, lets get you to the infirmary, I think Madam Pomfrey and Uncle Isshin can deliver your baby easily enough," she then helped her friend up. She then used a portkey to take her to the nearest delivery room before she had the house elves get Isshin and Poppy along with Isane and Retsu Unohana, all four planned to either help or to offer advice, or in some cases, watch and learn.

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Four hours later at six PM, Fukaku was pacing the hall outside of the delivery room, he kept glancing at the door with every quiet groan or loud scream from his wife. Two minutes later, a baby screamed out, as Fukaku began relaxing a second scream joined the first and the Head of the Clan paled in shock. Kisuke chuckled quietly as he though to Benihime, _**'it seems that Mikoto didn't bother to tell Fukaku that she might be carrying twins.'**_

Benihime snickered just as softly as her master as she murmured back, _**'so it seems, the is a reason that she and Kushina get along so well,'**_ she pointed out softly. He silently conceded his agreement to that statement as Isshin and Poppy came out, each of them was holding a child in their arms.

Fukaku swayed slightly but took his newborn children from them and Isshin said with a smile, "congratulations, Fukaku-San, you're a father to two baby girls."

"Daughters," breathed the dark eyed man as he stared down at identical faces.

Poppy nodded as she added softly so as to not spook the shell shocked man, "identical twins. Mikoto has already named them," she added before he looked up at her curiously, "the baby in the pale blue blanket is Misora. Her sister is Shiomi," she clarified as he blinked in stunned silence.

He then looked down at the two girls and smiled softly at them as he murmured, "hello my girls, my beautiful sky and my beautiful tide, I love you both." He then looked up to see the female version of his eldest child and Kisame watching him, he chuckled lightly before he asked, "do you want to hold them?"

Itachi beamed at her father before she scooped up Misora and cooed over her, "hello, little sister, I'm glad to meet you and your twin. Very soon you'll have a niece or nephew, the blue man holding your sister is your brother-in-law, Kisame Hoshigaki. He may look scary but he's got a heart of gold and he'd never hurt anyone I love, besides he's family."

As Itachi spoke softly to her sister, Kisame had gingerly taken her twin from her father and cradled her in his massive hands, she snuffled as she patted his face lightly as he brought her closer to his face. As he carefully studied her the blue skinned man idly wondered if her size was due to her being a twin or if all babies were as small as her.

Kushina chuckled quietly from the doorway of the delivery room before she called out to Kisame, "believe it or not, Itachi was the same size as his little sisters are right now." At that comment the shark like nin goggled at his mates godmother who said as she turned back into the room and called out, "stop apologizing, Koto-Chan. I told the girls that as long as it wasn't during the ceremony or my honeymoon then they could come anytime they wanted. You have not ruined my wedding, it was perfect," with that the red haired witch stalked out of the room and over to Kisuke.

She smirked before she said, "well, I hate to leave so soon after the ceremony but I think I'll whisk my husband away from you all," she caressed his scruffy jaw line. "After all, he has certain duties to attend to," she purred lightly as her gold eyes flashed hotly.

Kisuke chuckled before he nodded a farewell to all of those in the hall and said, "who am I to disappoint my bride on the first day of our marriage." With that both vanished from sight, none of those watching could tell if they had apparated, used a portkey, shunpo or the Flying Thunder God Technique.

James smirked lightly before he commented happily to Remus, "well we won't be seeing those two for a while if our daughter is anything like us." Remus groaned at his mates giddiness for their daughters wedding night, personally he'd be perfectly happy to forget she was a married woman and blissfully believe that she was still his baby girl.


	5. Chapter Four: Of Honeymoons, Matchmaking and the Oasis of Anubis!

**Chapter Four:** _Of Honeymoons, Matchmaking and the Oasis of Anubis!_

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The next day, a glowing Kushina poked her head into Mikoto's living room where she saw her friend resting while watching her newborns sleep. "Hey, 'Koto, how are you doing," she asked as she walked into the room.

Mikoto looked up, she smiled knowingly at the way her old friend radiated contentment, pleasure and sheer satisfaction, she then raised an eyebrow as she teased, "I'm doing fine but clearly not as good as you." At Kushina's confused glance at her the dark haired woman explained, "you're glowing, you radiate contentment and satisfaction. Not to mention that last night was the first night of your honeymoon and your pendant is now a cream color instead of pure gold," Mikoto pointed out to the now blushing seventeen year old. The dark eyed woman appraised her old friend before she shook her head ruefully, "you look almost as content as you did on February 28th of 1978."

Mikoto's eyes went hazy as she thought back to that day as she said thoughtfully, "in fact you never mentioned just what happened that day to make you that way…" At that she glanced over at her friend with curiosity filled gaze before she raised an eyebrow at her.

Kushina smiled serenely at her before the red head commented slyly, "if you're waiting for me to tell you what had me so insufferably pleased, as little Kakashi had put it, that day, then you'll be waiting a long time. 'Cause I'm not saying," with that she grinned at Mikoto impishly before she left the villa to go see Rabastan and Isshin.

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Later that night, Kisuke took a single look at his wife and muttered to Fukaku, "I think we might be having a repeat of prank number thirty-one." At that comment the dark haired man glanced at the blond oddly since the last time they had checked Kisuke had no real memories of his past life as Minato. However, what he just said belayed that, upon noticing Fukaku's glance at him Kisuke smiled in a rather familiar fashion before he said, "it seems that when Kushina and I consummated our bond magic released the seal upon my memories. I remember everything now, thank you for doing your best to keep your promise. The Namikaze clan owes the Uchiha Clan a great debt for their protection of the Clans heir."

At that comment by the blond every Uchiha who had overheard it stared at him in shock, for the Head of a Clan to declare that to another Clan head meant that neither clan would go against the other for any reason. By saying that Kisuke guaranteed that if the Uchiha returned to Konoha and Kisuke was there then he'd stand beside their decision to flee the village while allowing the village to believe the entire clan slaughtered. Not that Kushina wouldn't have stood by them but it was nice to know that they'd have the support of the Fourth Hokage as well as the Fourth's head ANBU.

What Kisuke neglected to mention was that he and Kushina had preformed a second, more private, bonding ceremony that upon consummation caused the pair to witness all of Kushina's and Kisuke's memories, both suppressed and remembered. It had caused Kisuke no end of amusement that before her lives as his wife, both of them, Kushina had been a rather smart mouthed, chain smoking man with bright red hair and blue eyes. Both of them had been amused by the man's obsession with his electro rod and pranks, Kushina's only remark upon remembering that life had been, "well at least I finally know where I got the idea to use those particular people from…"

Kushina whistled lightly as she nonchalantly strolled behind Rodolphus and Shisui, the two men were speaking quietly about ninjutsus techniques compared to curses and hexes. Rodolphus seemed to be adamant that certain curses or hexes would be more useful in battle than certain ninjutsus. Shisui had retorted by demanding an example of such a scenario, "if the user is proficient in the spells than they can be cast silently with few movements or direction from the user. Can you say the same of your ninjutsus," Rodolphus asked hotly with his blue-grey eyes flashing.

Shisui's dark eyes gleamed as he took a deep breath to continue their heated discussion, Itachi watched as his favorite cousin in clear amusement. In fact, most of the Uchiha present on the isle were watching the pair with unconcealed amusement, this was due to Shisui never showing an interest in anyone despite the blatant interest in him by many, male and females alike. However the moment he had laid eyes on this wizard, the twenty year old had been completely besotted with him, he had also taken time to speak with the ex-spy's younger brother, Rabastan as well as Isshin to try to gauge the older mans interest in him before he made his approach.

Anyone familiar with the many ways an Uchiha courted a chosen mate would have recognized technique number three, otherwise known as pulling the pigtails of the person you like in an attempt to gain all of their attention. Thankfully, the elder man seemed to not only recognize the rather juvenile form of courtship but was amused by it enough to play it back. The other two techniques most commonly used by the Uchiha were far more mature, the first was a highly formal one that had the person going through the parents of their love interest, or closest relative. The second method involved becoming their love interests friend first then gradually working up to asking them out on a date, the second method allowed their love interest to get to know them gradually in a more relaxed setting than the first or third.

It amused the Clan to no end that Shisui was using the third method while Itachi had used the second, the Clan as a whole would have sworn that it would be the opposite. Especially from their usual manners where love interests were concerned, Shisui tended to break the news that he wasn't interested and would never be interested, far more gently than Itachi ever did. Itachi would usually say something along the lines of, " _there is no way I'd ever even contemplate dating, let along, marrying someone as pathetic as you,_ " of course it was usually a fan girl so his contempt for the person was usually justified.

Kisame, on the other hand, was obviously skilled, both from his rank as an S-class missing nin and Itachi's blatant, at least to the other Uchiha, respect. His skills with Samaheda as well as his large repertoire of ninjutsu, genjutsu and kinjutsu had earned him the respect of the entire clan. The blue skinned nin was leaning against the wall next to Itachi, he was smirking as he watched the bickering pair, his pale eyes followed his one time sparring partner and now sometimes teacher as she idly strolled behind them. He cocked his head to the side before he asked his pregnant lover quietly, "what is you Aunt planning to do to them?"

Itachi eyed her for several moments before she sighed then said softly, "she's either going to trip one of them, find someway of locking them in a room together with no way out, _**or**_ ," she stressed. "Or she'll put a truth potion in their drinks then place a charm on them to cause them to ask each other private questions."

Kisame stared at his lover with a stunned expression before he shook his head in disbelief as he said, "I'm glad we were already together before I met her or I'd be afraid of what she'd plan to do to us." He then turned his pale gaze upon the two and he idly wondered how the pair had yet to notice the woman walking behind them with mischievous intent in her stride.

The pair finally ceased bickering/discussing matters loudly in order to notice their tail, Rodolphus took one look at Kushina before his gaze took on a wary glint. Something deep inside told him to be careful of her when she had that kind of a look on her face. "Can we help you, Kushina," he asked in a suspicious tone as he edged closer to Shisui, the younger man unconsciously relaxed as the elder edged closer to him.

She grinned impishly at them before she said in a casual tone, "yeah, there is something you can do for me, Uncle 'Dolph." She had then tossed a pair of bright orange balls at them as she said in a gleeful tone, "catch!"

Out of reflex both men caught the neon colored toy balls, as he caught the ball Rodolphus felt the familiar sensation of a portkey activating and he cursed loudly as he reappeared inside of a small set of rooms. It had a kitchen, a living room with two chairs and a bunch of bookcases, as well as a single bedroom and bathroom, the bed room contained a single queen-sized bed. Shisui had reappeared beside him and raised an eyebrow at the inventive cursing coming from the ex-spy's mouth before he took a look around the rooms. When he was inspecting the kitchen he opened all the cupboards as well as poked his head into the fridge to see what Kushina had left them as far as eating supplies went. Shisui chuckled as he remembered how Kushina had told the clan how she had Arthur figure out what spells to use on appliances to make them run without electricity, once the muggle obsessed man had figured it out she placed all of the spells on every appliance she owned.

He wasn't too surprised to find that all of the cupboards and the fridge fully stocked, he found a note sitting on the small table for two that was in the kitchen after he read it he groaned, which brought Rodolphus out of his cursing fit and into the kitchen. The wizard took the note from Shisui and read it aloud, " _ **Dear 'Dolph and Shisui,**_

 _ **I hope this note finds you well, however you both are more than likely cursing my existence due to how I transported you to these rooms. I just wanted to tell you that these rooms have been charmed and warded specifically for this day, all of the cupboards and fridge are charmed to keep the food fresh as well as grocery orders to be placed in the event you don't solve the problem between yourselves to my satisfaction before you run out of food. I've placed compulsion and truth spells all over the apartment neither of you will be able to lie to one another nor will you be able to avoid asking questions of each other. Love your favorite Niece, Kushina."**_ Rodolphus facepalmed as he muttered, which thanks to the note, was something that Shisui knew was the truth as far as Rodolphus was concerned, "gee thanks, my little niece. I really do love spending time alone with the person I'm attracted to and beginning to fall in love with but I would have appreciated a way out of here!"

Shisui shot him an odd look at that comment and Rodolphus' eyes widened when he realized that Shisui had overheard his muttered comment. He gulped at the calculating look that appeared on the younger mans face. "Attracted and beginning to fall in love with me, are you," he asked in a purring tone before he said in the same tone, "I think it's time that the two of us had a small chat about our mutual attraction and unresolved sexual tension." With that said, the ninja grabbed hold of the tanned man's arm and dragged him to the living room to begin a question and answer period.

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After the two men disappeared Kushina had smirked before she chirped, "well I think it's time that my husband and I head off on our honeymoon. See you all in two weeks," she waved cheerfully at those watching before she turned on her heel and headed toward her villa so she could gather her husband, who had left after his announcement to the Uchiha clan.

James laughed at that before he shook his head over his daughters antics as he left the area to go find Remus, several of those around him heard him muttering, "and I thought your ideas to get 'Nade-hime together with Dan was amusing." Only the Uchiha who had been alive when Tsunade and Dan were dating even realized who he was talking about. This fact combined with the confused looks on most of the other people's faces made the Uchiha's in the area realize that Kushina hadn't been bragging about her old pranks and matchmaking attempts to other people, thus the only way James could know about that incident was by some other means.

How that was, none of those watching had a clue but it was obvious that James hadn't really been speaking consciously it was more of a subconscious mutter. Which considering Kushina's, Rodolphus', Rabastan, Isshin's along with several other peoples reincarnations. None of them would put it past him being the reincarnation of someone who had known Kushina from when she had been a child reborn.

Meanwhile, Kushina had strolled into her and Kisuke's villa, as she did she called out, "'Nato-Suke-Koi, it's time to go. So put down your experiment and lets head out!"

The blond man poked his head out of the ritual room, he had one cheek smudged with black ink and his blue eyes lit up when he saw her, "that time already, my 'Shina-Chan?" He then gave her a bemused stare as he commented, "you know, you can call me by either Minato or Kisuke, I won't mind whichever one you use for me." He gave her a familiar lopsided smile as he said with a wry tone, "after all, they're both me, all of my memories did merge on our wedding night."

She caressed his smudged cheek lightly as she said equally as lightly, "I know that, love, but I don't want you or anyone else to ever believe I didn't love Kisuke Urahara as much as I love Minato, or visa versa." She drew him down until his forehead rested against hers and as she stared into his eyes she said, "because I love the parts that make up both with an equal amount of passion. I love Minato's seriousness, I love Kisuke's pranking ways, I love their curiosity and need to know ways, and I adore every habit of theirs that make them unique."

He smiled as he tilted her head up for a kiss, after they broke apart from it he murmured just before he kissed her again, "I know that, love, and I'll never ever doubt that. After all, I am well aware how you can love more than a single person at a time with the same amount of passion…"

One fact that had always caused an odd glance after that fateful masked ball was the fact that both Kushina and Kisuke made a habit of adding an empty space to all the tables. They slept in a bed big enough for three and they often, unconsciously, reached for someone who wasn't there. Many times a sad look would flash across their faces when their outstretched hands came upon empty space. Although no one had yet to question the pair about it the fact remained clear that everyone had noticed and was curious about their actions.

After several unhurried kisses between the pair, Kushina pulled back as she murmured, "this isn't getting us any faster and you promised that we'd leave the isle for at least part of the summer." She glared at him playfully as he pouted slightly losing her kisses but sighed since she did have a point.

As he pulled back from her, Kisuke snapped his fingers and a house elf appeared beside them, "how can I be of service, Master Kisuke, Mistress Kushina?" It stared at them with a curious expression on it's face, from it's uniform both could tell that the house elf was a female.

"Could you please gather mine and Kushina things for the first part of our honeymoon and take it to our destination," the blond man asked her.

She blinked before she nodded as she said, "of course, Master Kisuke, I shall do that right away," she had then bowed to them before she popped away.

Curious gold eyes stared at him and a single red eyebrow raised before she asked, "first part? And just what does the second part of our honeymoon entail, Minato," he flashed her a grin at the question.

He then nuzzled her gently along her jaw line as he murmured in her ear, "that is something you'll find out in due time, my lovely nymph." She huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked away in irritation, he laughed since he was well aware that her curiosity must be itching to find out where they would be going. He then held out his left hand to her, she glanced at it then up at him before she took it once she had taken it the blond man activated the portkey.

Once they stopped at their destination, the red haired woman looked around and her eyebrows shot up, they were in front of a large dwelling that was nestled in a lush valley. As she looked out over the valley she noticed a herd of Thomson gazelle that she knew were native to the African continent. That meant that they were somewhere either in Africa or in Egypt, as she gazed out into the valley her husband murmured, "according to your Headmaster, your great grandfathers grandmother was a full blooded Egyptian. Besides," he said with a sly smile, "I thought Anubis might like to return to his homeland," he paused in speaking long enough to flash her a devil-may-care grin before he said, "who knows he might decide to recreate the oasis of Ahm Shere again while we're here!"

She swatted at him for that comment as she said with a raised voice, "Kisuke!" He laughed as he dodged the light blow from her, his blue-grey eyes danced in amusement, she could always tell the differences in his personality when one of his lives influenced his actions more than the other life was. As Kisuke, he had become more playful the older he grew while in his life as Minato it was the opposite. By the time he had sacrificed his life to seal away the Kyuubi no Kitsune he had rarely joked or played a prank on his mischievous mate.

She ended up laughing when her zanpakuto spirits appeared beside her and Thanatos had grinned before he pleaded, "can I go flying?" she looked at him in amusement as she nodded, the other three looked on in visible amusement as the winged spirit whooped before he launched himself into the air. With powerful wing beats he was soaring high above the valley and it's inhabitants, Kushina watched as Thanatos wrapped his wings around himself. His actions allowed him to plummet towards the ground in a accelerated freefall, about five feet above the ground he snapped his wings open and thrust them downward, thus sending him back upward.

Benihime appeared beside her wielder, she was dressed in a blood red kimono with white cranes upon it, she also had a lotus shaped and painted comb in her hair, which was the color of flames while her eyes was the exact same color as her kimono. Her skin was paler than milk, she was wearing violet colored lip paint and gold eye shadow. "Hello, Kushina-San," she murmured as she gave a slight bow of her head toward her wielders chosen mate before she turned her attention to Thanatos' actions.

"Hello, Benihime," Kushina said lightly to the spirit of her husbands zanpakuto, as she had spoken Anubis had pulled the other spirit closer to him and wrapped his arms around Benihime's waist. The red haired spirit shot a look at her wielder when he chuckled at Anubis unconscious possessive action, when it came to her and her safety, Thanatos was as bad as Anubis. Both spirits treated the female spirit as if she was the most precious and priceless thing in their universe, a fact that pleased and at the same time angered her.

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Ten days later, Kushina watched in amusement as Anubis darted around the oasis that he had convinced her to help him build, although he was named after a god and greatly resembled that god closely, even to the point of having the same Army. He was not capable of making an oasis appear out of the desert from nothing nor would he even attempt to try doing so. During their time along the edge of Egypt and the Sahara desert, both Anubis and Thanatos had enjoyed staying outside of Kushina's inner world, Anubis had finally convinced talked her into helping him with the oasis two days before. So now the dark skinned man was checking the oasis over to make sure it was perfect before Kushina placed the Fidelius charm over the new area. The only people she would exclude from being blocked by the charm was herself, Kisuke, their three zanpakuto spirits and the Medjai as a whole as well as any of Kushina's blood relatives.

Anubis had created a bracelet that would allow anyone who proved themselves worthy to wield the Army of Anubis but only after they swore an oath to never harm anyone who hadn't committed any of the crimes listed in a book. Before they took the oath they had to sign the book in their own blood and swear upon their life as well as their eternal soul to never knowingly betray the oath that they were about to take.

The oasis would act much like the test for the Gryffindor Vault in the fact that you had to pass all the levels of the test to be worthy but they only had to pass a single test for your descendants to stay in the running. Anubis had decided that if they were to gain his army then the person should be intelligent, capable of thinking on their feet, have a good sense of humor and most importantly, must not have a god complex beyond what could be allowed due to their own capabilities. His mistress had giggled at that stipulation since the test for that was a questionnaire, the other stipulations didn't have written tests, Anubis had decided he rather preferred street smarts compared to book smarts.

When Kisuke had found out that Anubis had decided to create the oasis he had groaned before he had muttered, "I hadn't meant for him to take that literally!" Kushina had merely shrugged and helped her zanpakuto with his current problem, which had been whether or not to put a pyramid of pure gold in the center of the oasis. She had talked him out of it and instead convinced him that a pyramid made of stone encased in polished granite would be better to use. The spirit conceded her point since the capstone was a blue diamond that was a square foot at the base, the original gem had been an uncut and unpolished hunk that had been sitting in the Gryffindor vault gathering dust.

Unlike the oasis of Ahm Shere, the new oasis would only house living guardians not undead ones, nor would it house any of the flesh eating bugs like the last, as those things freaked Kushina out. Instead the pyramid would have a temple in front of it, it would be guarded by sphinxes, serpents, cheetahs and a single pair of celestial dragons to start with. The oasis would be full of game such as gazelle and water buffalo, the first three types of animals would be part of the tests. The sphinx's would test how well they thought on their feet, the serpents would be able to taste any lies they told while the cheetahs would be in charge of testing their sense of humor. The dragons would be in charge of guarding the temple and pyramid from raiders who wanted to either steal the treasure inside or to steal the bracelet.

Two hours later, Anubis and Kushina walked away from the oasis the red haired witch idly wondered how long it would take before the Medjai noticed the oasis and begin panicking over it. As they had prepared the oasis the pair had noticed the Medjai patrolling the desert edge, thanks to some fancy genjutsu none of the groups had noticed the forming oasis. Kushina had mentally muttered thanks to who ever it had been that created those jutsus to channel water to form underground springs and lakes as well as channeling said underground springs upward to form surface lakes or streams. She had used them along with a jutsu that accelerated plant growth as long as the person using the jutsu supplied chakra. She had taken seeds of several plants and caused them to age rapidly to full maturity in a mere five hours.

Hence the reason that the oasis had large fruit trees, lush grass and heavy grain, the lake and streams were full of fish from the Nile river. If the Medjai wanted they could use the oasis to either shelter in or use it to obtain food and water from in the centuries to come. If anyone entered the oasis other than Kushina, Kisuke or their zanpakuto spirits then both Kushina and Anubis would be notified immediately. Anubis could then appear there whenever he wanted same with Thanatos, in fact Anubis and Thanatos had a plan for the first time the Medjai made it to the temple. Which of course would happen, they would want to know how much danger the oasis would be to innocent travelers, thus the first time they visited they would get a surprise visit by Anubis. It amused Kushina that her zanpakuto would be willing to play a prank on an unsuspecting person but they had done such things before but for this once she'd approve.

Thanatos had played bodyguard to Benihime while his mistress and partner were playing with the oasis, the second part of the pairs honeymoon was to take place later during the day. According to Kisuke, the second part would only be for four days, the reason for the shortness of the time was not explained to her. Although her curiosity was eating at her, Kushina had resisted pressing her mate for any answers, after all, his first surprise was a fantastic one.

Kisuke was standing on the covered veranda of the large house, she'd been startled to find out that he had bought the valley just for this occasion. When she'd expressed her surprise to him the blond had muttered, "I thought it'd make a perfect place to raise our kids during the summer." Due to the nearness of the valley to the desert it didn't get as much rain as the rest of Africa, the rains were light and refreshing, during the times that it rained the five had wiled away hours either watching it rain or by other more private time consuming activities.

Her eyes softened as she had said, "it's perfect, my lion," during the summer she'd finally did what she'd promised to do two years ago and taught him how to do the animagus transformation. She had continued by saying in a light tone, "I would love to raise our children here. We will just have to have a Senkaimon installed along with an international floo connection…" Two days later the Senkaimon had been installed and a day after that the floo connection was set up for use. Kushina had purchased the lade that the oasis was placed on and so long as her soul existed it could never be taken from her possession.

While Anubis and his mistress were playing nature gods, Kisuke had practiced some of his old techniques from his life as Minato, which included but not limited to: the Flying Thunder God technique, Rasengan, and his taijutsu moves. Although he wasn't back up to his old levels he was still good enough to go toe-to-toe with his wife, it helped that she had drilled him in the basics when she'd begun to train when she was a child. Plus whenever he wanted to learn something new she would give him something that he had already known as Minato thus easing his training.

The blond looked up at their approach, he had smiled in greeting to them, Anubis nodded back to him before he disappeared in a flash of black fire as his mistress climbed the stairs up toward her husband. He pulled her close to his chest and nuzzled her neck once she was close enough to wrap an arm around her waist. "Are you ready to go," he asked in a husky murmur as he nuzzled her neck.

She had laughed gently before she nodded as she pulled back long enough to press a kiss to his lips as she murmured back, "yes, I want to see your next surprise for me."

He laughed at both her words and the excited look in her eyes, despite the differences in the color, it was identical to the look she'd always gotten before she tried out a new move or when he wanted to show her a move he had created. Sakumo could always recognize the look no matter how brief the appearance, same with Minato of course. But that was due to it always making an appearance whenever he practiced a new taijutsu move or a new ninjutsu. "Our bags have already been taken by the house elves," he had finally said instead of telling her about where they would be going.

He stepped backwards before he held out his hand s he teased her, "lets go time is a wasting," she laughed as she placed her left hand in his, as she felt the familiar tug of the portkey she heard him murmur, "I do love having you to myself. I must find a way to do this more often, how often can you retake your vows…" The last that the animals living in the valley heard from the bipedal beings was a peal of laughter.

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Naruto bounced along the path next to Sakura, they were now traveling along a more open area so Naruto had his clones dispelled and Sasuke had summoned his hawks to keep an eye on the caravan as well as the area surrounding it. Walking beside the blond was a cheetah whose shoulder reached the blonds, on the cats was a toddler. The child's mother was resting in the wagon that the three were walking next to. She had been assured by Naruto, the cheetah and Kakashi that her son was perfectly safe to ride on the cheetah's back.

The two Genin were discussing a possible training regimine for when they reached Suna, Sasuke was riding on the back of one of the larger hawks, a fact that made a few of the women of the caravan be a bit worried over the quiet teen. Kakashi was strolling along behind the two and taking mental notes about some of their ideas, he noticed a land mark that signaled that they were close to the border between Hot Water and Frost. As he did he heard Sakura saying, "I wonder how long Sasuke plans to stay on the back of his hawk…"

Naruto looked up at the sky as he said, "who knows, he's probably having fun and hasn't realized how long it's been since he went up there. Besides," the blond said with a smile as he reassured his teammate, "he did take some sandwiches and a couple water bottles with him up there."

She sighed before she muttered, "yeah, but I'm just hoping that it's the novelty and not him being antisocial."

Both Naruto and Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her before the blond said in a deadpan tone, "Sakura, unless it involves sopping in his female form, antisocial is Sasuke's middle name. At least it has been ever since the Uchiha massacre," Naruto vaguely conceded as he crossed his arms behind his head, "he was a lot more social before that happened."

Sakura nodded as she said, "at least he isn't so focused on killing whoever ' _ **that man'**_ is, I wonder what caused that to happen…"

Naruto shrugged before he said as he started walking backwards so he could face her as he talked to her, "maybe he learned something or remembered something new that made him rethink his goals. I think Sasuke just needs time to think, if he wanted to be antisocial then he wouldn't be riding Kilala. He'd be riding Akhenaten instead if he wanted peace and quiet, Akhenaten is a rather introspective hawk and only talks when he's reporting while Kilala is a consummate gossiper."

Sakura snorted but nodded as her green eyes sparkled in amusement, you're right, Kilala is almost worse than Ino is when it comes to gossip. But at least she's not obsessed with being Sasuke's wife like Ino is!" At that both preteens started laughing uncontrollably at the look Ino would have on her face if anyone told her that her beloved Sasuke-Kun preferred to be a very chatty raptor than her.

A few minutes later a hawk flew low to the ground and Sasuke jumped off it's back, the hawk then flew back up to join her brethren as her summoner walked toward his teammates. "What are you two laughing about," the dark eyed teen asked as he raised an eyebrow at them questioningly. He huffed in annoyance when all they did was look at each other then take a look at him and begin laughing harder.

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Kushina watched in amusement as Kisuke played in the sand, he was making sandcastles via earth jutsus before he used a water jutsu to wash away the castle he just made. Idly she wondered if anyone could see them and just what would they make of the pair of them, what with Kisuke paling in the sand and Kushina tanning herself on the top of the water. Right then she was lying on her stomach and had her chin resting on her crossed arms, her eyes flicked upward and she noticed a group along the cliff to their right.

In the group was two boys, a girl and a woman, Kushina sharpened her eyesight via transforming her eyes into their dragon forms, albeit in a human size not a draconic. The woman was a Konoha Jounin, she had black hair and red eyes, in fact if Kushina's memory served correctly then her name was Kurenai Yuhi. As she studied the three Genin she could tell that one boy was an Inuzuka from his markings and the pup resting on his head while the young girl was a Hyuga, she could tell from the child's eyes. And if she had to take a wild guess about the third child she would say that he was probably an Aburame.

She gave a lazy shrug as she murmured, "I wonder if this is their first C-rank mission," as she spoke she rolled over and flicked her hair out of her eyes. She was wearing a bikini that was sea green in coloration, the top part fastened at the back of her neck and at the normal place along her upper back, the lower part was tied at her hips.

Kisuke looked up at her murmur then he glanced over at the cliff to find that the four had paused to stare at the area where the two were and he asked idly his wife, "should we be worried about them discovering us?"

She hummed lightly as she opened a single grey eye, she had taken to wearing the genjutsu bracelet ever since they had arrived in the Elemental countries same with Kisuke so his eyes were currently sky blue that were twinkling mischievously at her. She laughed at the look that he was giving her, she had rarely see it during his life as Minato but much more often from his life as Kisuke. "Nah, if they get to close we'll start fading from sight thanks to the wards," she said as she flicked her wrist to activate the rune based ward that surrounded the area when in use. If anyone were to get too close to the pair it would activate and the pair would disappear from all their senses. The best part of the wards was the fact that they were undetectable even to a genjutsu master, in fact even the Uchiha's Sharingan was fooled by the wards.

A fact that deeply annoyed yet intrigued the clan as a whole, both Shisui and Itachi demanded that Kushina teach them how to create the ward. She had laughed but handed them each a copy of the scroll on the technique, she warned them to be careful if they used the move. In fact she told them to practice it where no one could see how it was preformed. They promised her that they would be extremely careful as they could possibly be when they used the ward and promised that they would practice it on Elysian Isle before they used it in the elemental countries.

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As they rode along the Egyptian edge of the Sahara, a group of Medjai spotted a dot of green along the horizon, the group of five looked at each other with raised eyebrows. As they neared the lush oasis the leader of the band came to an abrupt halt as he spotted a pair of stone statues that flanked a large granite stele. The statues were identical in appearance, both were statues of the jackal headed god, Anubis, the story on the stele told of the jackal army and the incident at the Oasis of Ahm Shere. It spoke of this oasis as the new resting place of the Army of Anubis, at those words all of the Medjai paled.

All five had heard from the elders of the Medjai about the last time that the Army arose, "we must inform the elders about this, immediately," the leader said firmly before he turned his horse around. The other four nodded with pale features as they followed him as he raced back to the oasis where their people had set up camp for the time being.

Four hours later the group of five rode into the camp, a dark haired woman looked up from where she'd been studying a scroll written in ancient Egyptian, her dark eyes followed the group. She felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist as she heard her husband ask, "what are you frowning about? Did the scroll not say what you thought it did," he asked teasingly.

"No, I was right about the scroll but I'm worried," she said as she rolled the scroll so she could put it away. As she did that she had continued by saying, "the group that had been sent out to patrol border of Egypt and the Sahara just rode into camp as if the Army of Anubis was on their tails." Little did she know just how apt her metaphor was, at least until the pair were told what the group had discovered on their patrol route.

"Hmm," was the only comment the blond haired man deigned to give his wife's thoughtless comment, he remembered well at least two incidents where his wife commented something similar just as casually. Both times she had ended up regretting her words, as he watched she had stood up and started walking to the main tent, "where are you going," he asked.

She glanced over her shoulder at him as she said with a gleam to her dark eyes, "to find out what's going on, Rick. I want to know what had them in a hurry to get back, they only left camp yesterday so they either pushed the horses or whatever has them so spooked isn't very far from here."

Rick sighed as he shook his head as he muttered to himself, "you're the one who proposed to her, Rick old fellow. Sure, she's saved your life multiple times over the course of your marriage, of course, she's also put your life in danger just as often…"

As he walked past a tent, a blond haired, blue eyed man looked out and raised an eyebrow at the muttering Rick was making. His lips quirked upward in a smile before he called out, "what's Mom done this time, Dad?"

The two men's blue eyes locked on each others before Rick rolled his eyes as he said, "nothing yet. Knowing your mother's innate curiosity she'll have us volunteered for something or another." He pointed at the main tent as he said, "the group that had bee assigned to the border of the Sahara and Egypt just rode into camp and the first place they stopped was your Uncles tent."

The younger man raised his eyebrows at that before he murmured, "that's unusual," he then stood up and leaned over to give the person beside him a kiss. One dark eye opened from the meditation that the person had been in and the man murmured, "I'll be back later, love, I want to find out just what's going on."

His dark eyed companion opened both eyes and snaked a hand behind his neck as they murmured back, "don't be long, dinner is almost done and I expect you to be here, my Alex." As they had kissed Rick had pointedly looked away, the one thing he tried very hard not to think about was his son's marriage.

Alex chuckled as he said, "I'll be here, don't you worry," his blue eyes gleamed with mischief as he said, "I should probably be worried if you're taking cooking lessons from my mom, though!"

"Alexander," his spouse snarled as they swatted at the blond and their dark eyes had flashed at him ominously as he dodged out of the way then ducked out of the tent.

As the two men walked toward the main tent of the camp Rick asked his son rhetorically, "you like to live dangerously don't you, Alex."

Alex laughed before he glanced at his father as he teased, "oh and as if you don't make mom angry on purpose." Rick conceded his sons point with a tilt of his head before they entered the main tent. The two men spotted a blue eyed man standing next to a tattooed man who was listening to the leader of the patrol. The leader was, to Rick's ears at least, babbling in Arabic, Rick's wife, his brother-in-law, both of them and his son all could speak and understand the tongue fluently. He, on the other hand, had to work at it to even understand it much less speak it. From what he could catch of the fast report was that the patrol seemed to have found a second oasis of the Army of Anubis.

He held up his hand and said, "wait, I thought we got rid of that when Alex was nine, I seem to recall it being devoured by the desert and the Army vanishing." He raised a skeptical eyebrow at them before he asked, "so, what's going on here?"

The blue eyed man next to his son turned to Rick's wife and said in a British accented voice, "you explain the situation to your husband, Evelyn."

She sighed before she turned to him and said as she gestured, "it would seem that Anubis formed another oasis quite recently. However, this one doesn't seem to depend upon the year of the scorpion or a bracelet to be found. It appears to be in plain sight," she ended with a confused frown as she glanced at her brother in confusion before she asked, "what do you think, Jonathan?"

He snorted before he said in a clipped tone, "I don't want to think about it at all, the first and last time we went near one of those we almost lost Alex and Rick." His blue eyes flashed as he said in a firm tone, "we did lose you for a bit and I gained a nephew in law, at the same time you gained a son in law while Alex gained a future mate(1) at the tender age of six!" He crossed his arms over his chest and huffed as he muttered, "if it weren't for the fact that we need to know what's going on I'd be the first to suggest that we watch it from a distance for several years!"

At that comment all of the people in the tent snorted lightly and the tattooed man said lightly, "think positively, my beloved," the dark haired man smiled wryly, "we could actually find out that this is nothing to be worried about." The other nine people in the room stared at him with disbelieving eyes, he sighed but nodded as he said, "hard to believe, I know but by Allah, I was merely making a point. The oasis might not be anything to worry about yet, I'm not saying that it won't be in the future but if it just appeared now then it might not be yet."

Evelyn rolled her eyes a bit at his words before she said, " whatever the case, we need to find out just how much of a threat poses to any innocents and that means we need to enter the oasis."

Alex's eyes flashed as he said darkly, "I'm not letting my Imhotep anywhere near the oasis!"

His mother rolled her eyes at his demand before she said, "I was thinking that he and your father could watch the camp while you, me, Jonathan and Ardeth go check out the oasis with a few other Medjai."

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Ardeth led the way on a black Arabian, Evelyn followed on a chestnut with her son riding a roan behind her, her brother Jonathan was riding by Ardeth on a black with three white knee socks. Ten Medjai followed behind them on variously colored horses, the group had decided to hold off on heading to the oasis until dawn so they didn't have to push the horses, as such it was twelve noon when they reached the oasis. Ardeth dismounted his horse and handed the reins to Jonathan, he then approached the stele to read it aloud, it had been written in four languages. The languages were ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, Arabic, Hebrew and surprisingly English.

"Many years ago, a man known as the Scorpion King lived, after a great defeat at the hands of his enemy, he and the survivors of his army were forced into the desert. One by one they fell to the suns harsh rays until only the Scorpion King was left, as he fell to his knees he made a pact with the death god Anubis. If the Jackal headed god spared his life and allowed him to defeat his enemies, then the King would give the god his soul for all eternity." Although intrigued by the story it was not new to Ardeth's listeners, all of them were well aware of the myth.

However, Ardeth continued with the tale carved into the stone, "the god accepted the offer and gave the Scorpion King control over his army. Using the Army of Anubis, the Scorpion king laid waste to his enemies and once he had conquered the known world, Anubis decided that it was time for him to collect the debt owed for the use of his army."

"Many thousands of years passed, the tale of the Scorpion King and the Army of Anubis faded into myth, until a family of archeologists discovered the bracelet of Anubis. Other forces were after the bracelet and the family fell into grave danger s an ancient enemy of the mother was moving against her. Her enemy hoped to gain control of the Army and use it for evil gains…" The whole group listened in stunned amazement as Ardeth repeated the adventure that the O'Connell-Carnahan family went through when Alex was nine year old.

"Enter the oasis and seek out the guardians who dwell within it to attempt to gain the Army of Anubis, however," Ardeth paused before he said, "be warned that Anubis has always been very picky of whom has control of his army." He tilted his head to the side as he studied the final sentence on the stele for several moments before he said, "it's sounds as if someone else wrote the last sentence while another wrote the tale."

"I think that's something we all agree on," Evelyn said as she crossed her arms over her chest, she was wearing black linen pants and shirt. A snort from beside her drew Ardeth's attention and his dark gaze studied Jonathan's outfit which consisted of tan pants with a loose white shirt, button up of course.

The Medjai leader shook his head in wry rueful amusement, if anyone had told him when he first met the Englishman that the blue eyed treasure seeker would become dearer to him than his own life he would have called them insane from the sun. But that is exactly what Jonathan had become to him and all of Ardeth's people had grown to respect and love him. Because as jaded as Jonathan could be he was still curious in an almost innocent and completely childlike way. "Shall we enter and try to find these guardians of the oasis," Alex asked to break the silence that had overcome the group.

At the question everyone snorted which caused the blond to smirk, Ardeth then mounted his horse and led them into the oasis. All of them kept a hand on a weapon, although three of their number could use magic even they kept a hand on a gun or a sword. All of the group could feel themselves being watched, unknown to them a few cheetahs had ventured close enough to catch their scents, the cheetah's had been startled by how three of the group smelled similar to their mistress. The three people shared a base scent with her, that fact told the cheetah's that those three were in some way related to Kushina, they just didn't know how.

However, all of the oasis' guardians remembered Kushina's orders that if the Medjai showed up and entered the oasis then they were to be allowed to reach the pyramid unmolested. As such the guardians stayed out of sight and watched the groups progress, it would take the group two days, even with horses, to reach the center of the oasis and the pyramid it contained there.

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Ardeth glanced at the large stone building that stood in front of the granite pyramid, the two large buildings were a few miles away before, he said as he sat down next to Jonathan, "we should reach the pyramid by tomorrow afternoon if not before than."

Evelyn nodded from her position next to her son, "I wonder whey this oasis is so different from the last one and why it took so long to appear. Not to mention as to why that story was carved into that stele…"

Alex sighted then said ruefully, "well, we'll hopefully get some answers to our questions tomorrow." He then rose from his spot on the ground near the fire and entered the tent that he shared with his mother and both of his uncles. The rest of the camp soon followed his example and went to sleep, they all wanted to be well rested for the next day.

The next mid morning found the group nearing the large building, outside of it was a walkway lined with jackal statues alternated with the jackal headed form of Anubis. Flanking the door was a pair of statues, on the left was a statue of a jackal headed Anubis and on the right was a winged man drawing a sword, his wings were mantled around him. As Alex, Evelyn and Jonathan passed through the pair, the two statues eyes glowed faintly as the ward linked to Anubis, Thanatos and Kushina activated.

Along the walls were relief's that told of the Army and their master, Anubis, as such when Anubis appeared in the shadows of one of the niches along the room no one noticed his appearance. He watched s the group studied the carvings on the walls before he stepped out of the shadows and in one step was in front of the alter, "why have you come to my oasis?"

The group turned at the silkily worded dark voice, they all saw a dark skinned man with gold eyes and long dark hair. He tilted his head to the side as he stated with certainty, "none of you wish to have control over my Army, so why have you ventured here?"

Evelyn stepped forward, she had be startled by his appearance but she didn't feel afraid or even wary of him, as she waked toward him the dark haired woman said as she gestured, "we were curious about this place. And we wished to find out if it posed a danger to innocent travelers or innocents in general."

He raised a single dark eyebrow at her before he chuckled and cupped her cheek as he said lightly, "you've always been a rather curious girl, little Nefertiti." Her eyes widened at that statement, he continued as he glanced at her son, Alex and smiled happily, "I'm glad to see that your son won't be venturing to Lord Osiris' realm anytime soon if his mate has anything to say about it. It had saddened me deeply to have gathered your soul so early the last time, Little Prince, do not force me to do so again," the man warned the blond darkly.

He then glanced around the room before his gaze caught sight of Jonathan and Ardeth, he laughed before he said with a glint of amusement to his gold eyes, "I see you two never change. You are still guarding your Queen and little prince," he gestured to Evelyn and Alex as he spoke before he commented, "and still together I see." He stepped away from the alter and prowled the room before he asked in a curious tone, "what do you wish to know about the oasis?"

"Are there rules to being a leader of your Army," Ardeth asked as he glanced at the dark god warily.

"I want to know hey it appeared so recently and if being the human commander of your army has any negative repercussions," Alex asked as he remembered how the Scorpion King looked when they had visited the last oasis.

His blue eyes strayed to his mother as she asked, "how did you know that none of us wanted to have control over your army?" She cocked her head to the side as she said, "I'm just curious since you seemed very sure about that when you said it."

Jonathan merely crossed his arms over his chest as he said, "I just want to know if you're mad about me taking the last pyramid's capstone."

Anubis laughed before he said in an amused tone, "how could I be angry about that, everything in that oasis was born of Mathayus mind not mine. As for your question, Evelyn, did you honestly think I wouldn't keep my eye on you after what happened in the last oasis," he questioned her rhetorically. He then waved his hand dismissively before he turned to Ardeth as he nodded and said, "there are indeed many rules this time and if anyone wants to control my army they must swear an oath as well as sign a book in their own blood."

"As for your query's, Little Prince," Anubis said with a smile, "each person who contracts the army sets their own terms, if they manage to prove worthy of the army anyway. Mathayus chose his terms if he was silly enough not to specify a length of time before I could take his soul that's not my fault." The dark god then shrugged and said with a wry smile, "as for why the oasis appeared now is simple. My army has a new general and she's the best I've ever seen," he then glanced at them all as he asked them with a glint to his gold eyes, "would you like to meet her?"

* * *

(1) I'm going to explain this real quick just to keep anyone from being squicked. Alex and Imhotep's souls were bonded to one another's which means that Imhotep didn't age until Alex reached Imhotep's physical age. As for why the lot of them are still alive will be explained later. In other words, there was no hanky panky until Alex was old enough.


	6. Chapter Five: Of Introductions and Proposals

 

 

**Chapter Five:** _Of Introductions and Proposals_

* * *

 

Anubis watched as expressions of astonishment crossed the faces of the people inside the temple complex. Evelyn raised her eyebrow at the tanned god before she said decisively, "I'd love to meet the new general!"

Anubis conceded with a nod as he sent a thought to his partner, ' _ **Thanatos, could you come to the oasis for a moment.'**_ He felt Thanatos wordless confused agreement and as he felt Thanatos coming to him, Anubis said aloud, "come here, Thanatos!"

A moment later, another dark haired man appeared beside the gold eyed man and said sardonically, "you rang, Anubis."

Anubis sighed but was inwardly amused at the wide eyed glances he was getting from the group as they watched the pair. "Yes I did, could you please go retrieve my Lady, my guests wish to meet her," he finally said with a sigh over his partners antics.

Thanatos glanced over at the group before he rolled his eyes and said, "sure," he then shot the other 'god' a glare as he said darkly, "but don't expect me to do this every time you have guests, Anubis." The last word was almost hissed out before the winged man faded from view, Anubis inwardly wondered what got the wide eyes, Thanatos' wings or if it was over how the winged man was dressed.

He had been amused to find that his partner was wearing a pair of Hawaiian print surfing shorts, no shirt and his hair was in a high ponytail.. Considering the large black wings jutting from the tall mans back, the strange choice of beachwear was extremely amusing to the dark spirit.

A few moments later, the man reappeared with a red haired woman clad in a pair of black pants and a shirt that had, 'behind every successful man is a surprised woman,' printed on it. The shirt was blood red and the letters were written in black, her long hair was the exact same color as her shirt and from behind her long bangs a pair of gold eyes with grey flecks in them stared back at them curiously. It had surprised her that the green flecks that had been in her eyes before had turned to grey, even Kisuke had been startled but he had thought that magic was trying to return her to how she thought she should look and over three hundred years with grey eyes outweighed only seventeen years with gold eyes. Those eyes flicked over to look at the group as she said, "hello, Anubis, how's your day been," as she spoke she had walked over to behind the alter and sat down in the throne there.

Anubis laughed before he said in an amused tone as he bowed to her, "I've been fine, my Lady," he gestured toward the group as he said, "they wished to meet the new commander of my Army."

As she looked at them, she leaned forward and asked, "may I ask for your names, it's is only polite to give your own name before requesting another's."

Evelyn blushed a bit before she said, "I'm Evelyn O'Connell, this is my son Alex," as the dark haired woman gestured to her son, she was surprised to see recognition in the younger woman's eyes.

Before they could introduce themselves, the red haired woman turned to Evie's brother and said, or rather exclaimed, "then you must be Jonathan Carnahan and Ardeth Bay!" At their puzzled looks, she blushed and shrugged as she commented to Alex, "your biography was a very good read…"

Alex laughed before he cocked his head to the side as he said, "well, you have us at a disadvantage, you know who we are but we're still clueless about who you are. So, Commander of the Army of Anubis, what is your name," he raised his right eyebrow in a familiar gesture as he asked.

Kushina rose from the throne and bowed before she said with a smirk, "Kushina Urahara, however, before this last July I was known as Kushina Ruri Potter-Lupin." This time it was Kushina who received the surprised and startled looks at her name, she then raised her eyebrow at them in askance.

"Lupin," questioned Alex as he crossed his arms over his chest, "any relation to Adolf and Cynthia Lupin?"

Kushina blinked at the odd question before her eyes widened as she remembered Albus' comment during the summer before her fifth year and she said, "they were my grandparents on my fathers side. Most of my maternal relatives are deceased and the few that are still alive are not aware of our branch of the family…" She trailed off as she thought of her son, her brother as well as her cousin branch in Suna.

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Hermione glanced down at her left ring finger and smiled at the ring that encircled it with a fond expression. As she rubbed her thumb across the warm metal she heard a rumbling voice purring from a few feet away, "if you keep making that expression while staring at the ring I gave you. Then I'll forced to steal you away for some privacy," he walked closer as he had spoken.

She laughed as she leaned back into his broad chest and glanced up at him, she smiled in a pleased fashion as she said, "you can't blame for being happy about this." She had held up the ring as she spoke, the sunlight glinted off the gem embedded in the white gold band around her finger. The brown haired girls eyes danced with happiness as she said cheerfully, "after all, you're the one who gave it to me."

He snorted lightly before he nuzzled the brown eyed girl as he said, "no, I don't blame you for being happy, I just wish that I didn't have a Pavlovian response to it!"

His words caused her to start laughing uncontrollably and his pouting expression didn't help her get her laughter under control at all. Finally he huffed and walked away from her while he muttered to himself, "why the hell do I want to marry her? Oh, yeah because you're completely in love with her and want to spend the rest of eternity with her or at least as long as you can. Kenpachi from Zaraki, you are absolutely insane!"

As she laughed almost to the point of tears Hermione remembered how her boyfriend how her boyfriend now fiancé had sprung the proposal on her thirteen days ago.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Flashback^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A vaguely familiar shadow fell over her so Hermione looked up, she smiled upon seeing Kenpachi towering over her reclined position where she had been reading a book as she tanned. To her surprise he didn't have a pink haired lieutenant hanging onto him, she raised an eyebrow at him before she turned a page as she asked, "where's Yachiru at?"

Kenpachi dropped down next to her as he said, "visiting and playing with Yuzu," he glanced at her before he said in a pouting tone, "Yachiru's growing up." At Hermione's puzzled glance he explained, "she's growing older. Instead of looking like she's four or five years old, she looks like she seven. Yachiru figured out a long time ago just how to keep herself from aging like everyone else, she said she didn't want to grow up and leave me or the division." His eyes gained a sad look in it as he muttered, "I'm worried that she's changed her mind about that now."

Hermione placed her hands over his as she said soothingly, "all children have to grow up sometime, I'm sure my father wanted me to stay a little girl forever. However I grew up and fell in love with you, I'll always love him dearly, he's my father after all. I'll keep in touch with him but I'm not going to live with him," she said as she looked up at him as she worried her lip. She then said firmly, "the reason I'm glad I grew up instead of being a child forever is because I love you. Perhaps," she paused before she continued, "perhaps Yachiru has met someone who pulls at her soul in such a way that it begs her to stay by the person's side."

Kenpachi sighed before he said with a scowl, "well, whoever or whatever it is they had better treat her right or they'll be talking to me and Sekhmet not Yachiru."

Hermione smiled at how protective Kenpachi was of his adopted daughter, it was actions like this and how gentle he could be with Hermione that proved that the eleventh division captain had a heart. The scarred man simply guarded it far more viciously than most did theirs, however, no one who saw him sparring with Kushina thought him to be weak due to his gentleness where his adopted daughter and mate were concerned. After all, unless it was the aforementioned two or a defenseless innocent, Kenpachi could care less about being gentle and even then he'd be more likely to ignore innocents than be gentle with them. About the only exceptions to that rule was Ichigo's sisters and daughter, Orihime, Nel, Teddy and Cassiopeia, other than them the rest would be lucky to be ignorant.

Hermione massaged his neck lightly, his eye slipped closed as he started to purr her lips twitched as she listened to the sound and contemplated how to best get him to relax for a while. Finally, after several moments of though her eyes lit up and she leaned down to ask the purring shinigami, "would you care to accompany me on a picnic, Kenpachi? Kushina told me all about a lovely clearing that's perfect for either cloud watching or stargazing," he glanced up at her at that and she smiled with false innocence.

Kenpachi laughed darkly as he pinned his brown eyed witch to the ground before he purred softly in her ear, "you just want me all alone to yourself for the day…"

His eye flashed gold at her wicked smile and throaty chuckle as she purred back, "maybe, I just want you alone so I can have my wicked way with you. I'll take your question as a yes to my own," his eye widened at that especially since she leaned upward and kissed him lightly before she vanished in a swirl of leaves.

He rolled his eye before he flopped over onto his back as he muttered, "I really hate it when she does a kiss and run."

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An hour later, Hermione led the way through a forest Kenpachi trailed along behind her, he occasionally cussed as ivy plants tangled around him or he had to duck a branch that she easily passed under. It amazed Hermione that an action that would have earned anyone else a smack, shout or a mild hex only got a fond smile from her when it came from Kenpachi. When she asked Kushina, the red haired woman laughed before she shook her head as she said, " _ **welcome to the land of allowances for those we love, because when you love someone allow them privileges that no one receives. You let Kenpachi get away with things that earn your wrath from anyone else simply because you love him, I do the same for those that I love."**_

Finally, the pair entered a lush clearing that was an almost perfect circle, it was carpeted by a short thick grass and along it's edge were berry plants. To keep the grass from staining their clothes, Hermione took a blanket out of the basket that the house elves had left in the middle of the clearing. As she shook out the wrinkles caused by the folding of the blanket she had reversed the shrinking charm on it, the blanket turned out to be large enough for Sajin, Kenpachi and Shunsui to lay sprawled out on it without touching each other.

As she placed the basket on top of the blanket Hermione looked up at Kenpachi and said as she kneeled beside it, "I don't know about you but I'm hungry from the hike," with that she began taking out the food.

Kenpachi snorted at her quip but took off his zori since Hermione had taken off her hiking boots before she stepped onto the blanket, he then knelt across from her and watched as she pulled out all sorts of food. He recognized some but there were a few dishes he didn't, knowing his witch the way he did he knew she'd make him try them all before she even contemplated telling him what they were.

Despite not knowing what some of the dishes were or what they were made of but he trusted Hermione's judgment since the pair had shared not only quite a few meals but picnics as well. His eyes lit up at the sight of the meatball sandwiches, the first time Kushina had made them for the school he had fallen in love with them, his eyes brightened even more when she pulled out a tub of homemade potato salad and another tub of homemade coleslaw. All three items made up for the previous three dishes he couldn't recognize, one of those three was a bowl filled with an orange-red paste in it with flecks of red and green through it. A box of crackers was placed between the bowl of paste and a plate with two small balls on it, both balls had red powder on one side and a sprig of green on the tops. The last dish had been small fried square packets with a small bowl filled with a sweet smelling sauce.

He picked up one of the squares and dipped it into the sauce before he popped it into his mouth, he hummed in a pleased fashion as he chewed on the small piece of food. She smiled smugly before she allowed him to place a square that had been dipped into her mouth, as she chewed the packet he asked her quietly, "what are these," he had held up another square as an example as he spoke.

She swallowed her mouthful and answered briefly, "fried raviolis with cream cheese filling, the sauce is a mixture of honey and maple syrup," she then accepted the ravioli he was offering her. After they had finished off the twelve raviolis that had been packed Hermione said, "close your eyes, Kenpachi," he sighed but did as she asked. She quietly dipped a cracker first into the orange-red paste then a separate edge into one of the balls. As she placed the cracker into his mouth she commanded him softly, "chew," she watched as he at the cracker and it's contents without complaint.

He opened his eyes and looked up at her before he asked in a curiosity filled tone, "what was on that cracker?"

She smiled as she tapped his nose with her right index finger as she said, "roasted red pepper hummus and a bit of brandied cheese ball, good huh?"

He hummed an agreement before he scooped up some of the hummus onto a cracker as well as some of the cheese ball as he said, "you try it and tell me if you like it."

Two hours later, the food was gone and the pair were lying on their backs, they were staring up at the clouds Hermione was lying along Kenpachi's left side and his arm was wrapped around her shoulders. As they debated the shapes of the clouds she was absentmindedly running the tips of her fingers along his forearm. To her surprise he pulled away from her and leaned over her, as she stared up at him with a confused expression plastered across her face he trailed a fingertip along her face then down her jugular. She reached up and played with his loose hair as she asked in a puzzled tone, "is something wrong, my Kenpachi," she stared up into his dark eyes as she spoke trying to figure out why her boyfriend was looking so nervous.

"Nothing's wrong," he hedged before he sighed and muttered softly, "I'm just trying to figure out how to put this into words…"

She raised an eyebrow at him before she said with a smile, "unless you're trying to tell me that you no longer want to be with me, I think that I can handle whatever it is no matter how badly you word it."

Kenpachi spluttered as he stared down at her in shock before he said in a firm tone while his eyes glowed gold, "I would never say such a thing quite the opposite in fact. You're the bravest, boldest, most gorgeous, intelligent woman I've ever known, you've routinely yet alternately infuriate and amaze me." She blushed as she stared up at him, he reached into his pocket as he retrieved a dark brown velvet box, he took a deep breath before he opened the box as he asked her while he stared into her eyes, "would you do me the honor of having you by my side for so long as our souls exist?"

She stared up at him in shock for several silent moments before she grinned and wrapped her arms around his throat as she chanted, "yes, yes, yes! Of course I would."

Kenpachi hugged her back as he breathed a sigh of relief, she had been silent for so long that he had begun to think he had asked her to marry him too soon.

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Five days later, Hermione saw a pale faced Ron walk up to Ichigo's and Byakuya's villa, she raised an eyebrow before she muttered, "well, well, well, color me surprised. Ron's finally gonna ask them for her hand," she shook her head ruefully as she said, "I'm impressed, considering that Byakuya-San has just recently began warming up to him…" She smirked before she walked away as she murmured, "you are certainly a credit to our house, Bashira, and I'm proud to be your pride mate."

Five hours later, Ron composed himself before he bowed to Byakuya and Ichigo as he said firmly, "it will be as we agreed. Rukia and I will remain engaged for no less than five years before we can marry," his blue eyes were determined. "By then our love will have withstood a brief test of time and if we still wish to marry we will in the traditions of your clan." He smirked as he canted his head toward Byakuya, "and as agreed due to the five elder brothers in my own clan that can carry on my family name I agree to take the Kuchiki name as my own when we marry."

Byakuya nodded in satisfaction, like him, Rukia was marrying for love and not for any other reason, for that alone he was proud of her. However, he had even more pride for her since her choice of mate had come to him and requested her hand in marriage without being asked by either herself or by Byakuya. During their discussion, Ron had presented the ring that would serve as Rukia's engagement band, the materials it was made of had caused both Byakuya and Ichigo to raise an eyebrow.

The ring was embedded with the prescence of Ron's soul, the band was made of a silver toned metal while the gem was the size of a thumbnail. When they had asked about the size of the gem, Ron had muttered, "I didn't want it to be too big but I didn't want it to be small either." When they had questioned him on where he bought the ring he had blinked for a moment before he said with puzzlement in his voice, "Sobek helped me make it. He brought the metal and the gem with him, we used the metal smiths shop to forge it then set the stone into place. Why do you ask," he queried as he tiled his head to the side.

The pair then told him that due to the feel to the ring it was most likely that the metal was from Sobek's sword form while the gem was a solidified piece of Ron and Sobek's joint love for Rukia as well as Sode no Shirayuki. Ron had stared at them in shock before he had asked if they thought if she would like it. Byakuya had snorted, "if she does not them she would be a fool, that ring is tangible evidence of both your's and Sobek's devotion to her. Not even the Kuchiki clan council will be able to deny you and her the right to marry if you so desire," his grey eyes had flashed mischievously before he said, "it is the same reason they could no longer deny my bond to Ichigo. They tried to force us apart when he was Hisana and it wasn't until Ichigo gave me a pendant for our anniversary made from a piece of Zangetsu as well as a tri-colored gem that they realized his, Zangetsu's and even Ichigo's hollow's love for me."

Byakuya shrugged as he played with the pendant around his neck, it was a dog with a gem in it's mouth, the stone was three separate colors swirling together in the middle: honey brown, gold and white blue. All three were Ichigo's eye colors, the gold was from when he was using his hollow powers, his normal eye color was honey brown and his eyes glowed a whitish blue. Byakuya summoned a house elf and he said, "can you go tell Rukia to come to the formal sitting room, I wish to speak with her as soon as possible."

Five minutes later, Rukia entered the room to see her older brother, her former elder sister and her boyfriend sipping tea as they waited for her to get there. She halted as she pondered where to sit, Byakuya gestured for her to sit beside Ron and she took the seat slowly as she wondered why all four of them were here. After several long moments Byakuya finally stated, "Ronald Weasley has petitioned Ichigo and myself for your hand in marriage. Providing that you agree," he stressed that the choice would be hers alone, he would not press her to accept or deny the proposal. "We have come to an agreement regarding the marriage contract," he handed a sheet of paper over to his adopted sister to look over.

Rukia took it from him and read it silently to her Zanpakuto, ' _ **Agreement of marriage between Rukia Kuchiki and Ronald Weasley**_

_**Proposed and Agreed to by Byakuya Kuchiki-Kurosaki and Ichigo Kuchiki-Kurosaki** _

_**Head of the Kuchiki Clan and Co-Head of the House Noir** _

_**This pre-marital agreement is made on this** _ _**8th** _ _**day of** _ _**August** _ _**,** _ _**1998** _ _**, between** _ _**Rukia Kuchiki** _ _**and** _ _**Ronald Weasley** _ _**.** _

_**Whereas the parties intend to marry under the laws of the Country of** _ _**Japan** _ _**, and wish to set forth in advance of their marriage the rights and privileges that each will have in the property and decisions of the other in the marriage;** _

_**A trust will be set** _ _**Ronald Weasley** _ _**in the event of the death of** _ _**Rukia Kuchiki** _ _**before or after their marriage; upon their marriage** _ _**Ronald Weasley** _ _**has agreed to take upon the last name of the Kuchiki Clan and thus gain all the rights and privileges entailed. Even in the event of his Fiancé/Wife's death he will retain all such privileges and property obtained in this agreement, in return he offers an oath of his loyalty and fidelity. Should he break said oath then he will lose all such privileges and property.** _

_**Whereas both parties acknowledge that they have read and understand this agreement, have not been subjected to any form of coercion, duress, or pressure, and believe this agreement to be fair and to represent their intentions with regard to their marriage;** _

_**The parties hereby agree as follows:** _

_**1.) A trust to be set up for Ronald Weasley upon the signing of this agreement.** _

_**2.) That Ronald Weasley will take the Kuchiki name upon their marriage.** _

_**3.) That Ronald Weasley will give an oath of Fidelity and Loyalty to his wife upon their marriage.** _

_**4.) Rukia Kuchiki has agreed to give an oath the same as Ronald Weasley.** _

_**5.) Both agree that if any of their children show an aptitude for the position that they will allow the child to take the Headship of the Kuchiki Clan.** _

_**6.) Any property or assets given as gifts/presents within the confines of marriage will belong to the gifted upon the death or breaking of the bond of marriage (however unlikely that is to happen.)** _

_**7.) Both will remain engaged to the other for no less than 5 years but no more than 10 years.** _

_**8.) Should the pair decided to not go through with the marriage then the trust will be dissolved and the agreement also dissolved.** _

_**9.) Ronald Weasley agrees to continue to gain the highest education possible in the field that interests him, (to be paid out of the trust fund,) for as long as the engagement is held. Should his education be completed before the end of the engagement and thus the nearing of marriage then he has agreed to seek out a job in the field that he has gained the education in or return to school to learn a separate field of study.** _

_**10.) Neither of the party will ask the other to cease their job even in the event of the birth of a child, the mother may continue to work up until the birth of the child or until her health professional says otherwise. A nanny may be employed to care for the child while the parents are at work or the parents may ask a relative to look after the child while they are working.** _

_**At all times, the parties shall enjoy the full right and authority with regard to their separate property as each would have had if not married, including but not limited to the right and authority to use, sell, enjoy, manage, gift and convey the separate property. Both parties agree to execute any documentation necessary to permit the other to exercise these rights, provided the act of executing the documentation does not impose upon them any legal or financial responsibility for the separate property of the other.** _

_**The parties agree that each shall be responsible for any tax obligations associated with their separate property.** _

_**The parties agree that neither shall contest the validity or provisions of any will, account, trust agreement, or other instrument executed by the other which disposes of his or her separate property or which creates any interest therein in another. To the extent that such an action would create any right or interest in the separate property of the other, both parties hereby waive any right in the property of the other, whether created by statute or common law, including but not limited to any right to elect against the will of the other, or to take an intestate share of the other's property. The wife hereby waives any dower interest in the husband's separate property, and the husband hereby waives any courtesy interest in the wife's separate property.** _

_**In the event of separation or divorce, the parties shall have no right against each other for division of property existing of this date.** _

_**The parties mutually agree that neither of the parties shall be expected to reduce his or her work hours, or refrain from working, in order to care for any children born during the course of the marriage, in which case, the parent's may employ a nanny to care for the child.** _

_**This agreement shall be binding and inure to the benefit of the parties, their successors, assigns, and legal representatives.** _

_**Without regard to the location of any property affected by this agreement, this agreement shall be interpreted and enforced under the laws of the country of** _ _**Japan** _ _**. In the event that any portion of this agreement shall be held invalid or unenforceable, it is the intent of the parties that all provisions of this agreement be regarded as separable, and that all remaining provisions remain in full force and effect. It is further the desire of the parties that all provisions of this agreement be considered as evidence of their intentions by any court, arbitrator, mediator, or other authority which seeks to divide their estate, and that their intentions be respected whatever the legal status of this agreement or any of its terms.** _

_**This Agreement hereto contain the entire agreement of the parties. This Agreement may only be amended by a written document duly executed by both parties.** _

_**Signed this** _ _**8th** _ _**day of** _ _**August** _ _**,** _ _**1998** _

_**_Fiancé** _

_**Fiancée** _

_**Signed in the presence of:** _

_**Witness** _

_**Witness.'** _

She glanced up at her brother, a dark eyebrow raised questioningly at him, the terms within were clearly well thought out as well as rather generous to both her and Ron. Rukia knew that Byakuya could demand far more than he had of Ron, the very fact that he hadn't had marked a sign that her elder brother respected the red head a great deal. She handed the sheet back to her bother as she said formally but with happiness in her eyes, "I accept the terms within the marriage contract for myself and Ronald."

Ron breathed a sigh of relief before he signed the contract after Rukia had before her brother and Ichigo signed it as witnesses, after they had signed it Ron had presented the ring to Rukia with a slight flourish. She opened the box and gasped at the sight of the ring, she then pulled it out of the box and after several moments of staring at it she placed it on her left ring finger. She then hugged Ichigo and her brother before she kissed Ron, "it's absolutely perfect and I love it, thank you, Ron. I know this must have taken hours, if not days to make," she had murmured softly as she pulled back from him.

Ron laughed lightly before he nuzzled her as he said, "as long as you're happy with it neither Sobek nor I care about how long it took to make." It was clear from the expression on her face that she was quite pleased with her ring and that the pair needn't worry about her disliking the ring that they had created for her.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Two days later in the Elemental Countries, Kushina spotted a dear cousin traveling with two companions, with a mischievous glint to her grey eyes she changed form and followed the trio. As she followed them through the trees, she overheard the younger woman ask her cousin, "Tsunade-Sama, where are we traveling to and how long are we going to stay there?"

The busty blond woman sipped a cup of Sake as she said quietly, "to Frost, Shizune, but I think we'll take a small break from traveling while in Hot Water. I fully plan to have us stay at Kushina's place in that country, she always told me that I was welcome to use any of her safe houses while traveling after all. We could use the rest, right Ton Ton," she asked the piglet who merely gave a soft oink in response.

The dark haired woman bowed as she said softly, "as you wish, Tsunade-Sama," she then began to prepare their dinner over the fire. As she did she glanced at her teacher out of the corner of her eye as she thought to herself, ' _I wish she'd stop mourning you, big brother and cease to be so scared of blood! I know that you wouldn't want her to be so crippled by your death that she could no longer do what she had been so passionate about when you had met her.'_ She sighed lightly as she stirred the stew as she continued to internally mutter to herself, ' _if only Kushina-Sama hadn't died then Tsunade-Sama would have returned to Konoha by now to take over the hospital. However, she refuses to set one foot back in the village until both Kushina and Minato-Sama's last wishes are respected. Until she sees proof that they are respected or something extremely drastic, like someone being alive while supposedly dead, happens she'll never return there!'_

Meanwhile, as she crouched in the treetop Kushina frowned at the state of her cousin, the two of them had always gotten along just fine. Kushina had in fact been the shoulder that Tsunade had cried on and the person that she vented to when first Nawaki then Dan died, even though the red head was the one to encourage the romance between the pair, Tsunade had never blamed her for her heartache. Tsunade had done the same for Kushina when Sakumo had died, to the blonds surprise Kushina had wailed, screamed and babbled to her in an almost hysterical incoherent fashion when her walls finally broke down. Thus Tsunade had been only one besides Minato in the entire Shinobi corps outside of the Hokage who knew just how close Kushina had been to her partner and how much the red head had depended upon him.

When Kushina had died, Tsunade had merely said softly, "at least the three of them will be together in death, it was a grievous act of cruelty to have torn them apart like that." Her words had puzzled those who had overheard it, at least it had until the Hokage had revealed that Kushina and Sakumo were closer than most partners. He had revealed that the reason they had worked so well together was because they knew each other inside and out, thus allowing them to be able to predict what the other was doing or thinking at any given moment. One time, Kushina had been asked what Sakumo had been thinking while he was on a mission in the country of Grass, she had laughed and said, _**"he's silently cursing the terrain, the weather and me not being there. Why do you ask?"**_ Unknown to the person who had asked the question and Kushina who had answered it, in the country of Grass, Sakumo's mission partner had asked what he was thinking, it wasn't until after the mission that his mission partner revealed that Kushina's words were right on target.

Tsunade had often envied the pair of their partnership during the time before Sakumo's death, this was due to how they could be so certain that they could charge into battle and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that their partner was only a step or two behind them. Sakumo had often been right beside Kushina whenever she'd did something reckless or dangerously crazy and she was the same with him, where one when the other swiftly followed. The only time that they hadn't was when Sakumo had died and even then it was as if Kushina couldn't understand that Sakumo would never be there to rescue her from her recklessness again.

After the two had fallen asleep, Kushina dropped down and knelt beside Tsunade, she carefully ran her fingers through the blond woman's bangs before she had pressed a light kiss to the mark on the other woman's forehead. She then murmured, "I wish you'd take better care of yourself, 'Nade-Chan, you're breaking Dan-San's and Nawaki-Chan's hearts. At least you have Shizune-Chan to look after you," she then stood up as she smiled fondly down at her and said, "when I come back, you're returning to Konoha, even if I have to drag you back kicking and screaming. After all," she smiled smugly as she said with a wicked glint to her eyes, "I've learned a few new tricks that you might be interested in learning yourself."

Before she left the camp to return to her husband, she dropped a scroll sealed against all but the blood relations of the Uzumaki Clan. As she bounded away from the two women's camp she idly wondered what her dearest cousin would make of the scroll and the contents that were held within it. She laughed softly as she neared the beach that her and Kisuke had been camping out on, the blond man looked up and asked her with a smile, "where have you been all day, my lovely whirlpool?" As he had questioned her, she had walked toward him with a soft smile on her face and she kissed him on the cheek in greeting.

She then laughed aloud and called over her shoulder as she walked toward their tent, "just following a certain slug princess, I left her a note, hopefully she'll follow it's advice. I don't think Nawaki and Dan want to write another series of letters to her like that again." The blond man shook his head and laughed over his wife's antics, very few people were willing to play delivery owl for the living from the dead, he followed her inside the tent as he laughed.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Two days before the Medjai had discovered the new oasis, both Rabastan and Rodolphus woke up out of sound sleeps screaming silently, as they laid on their respective beds on opposite ends of the villa, they had panted in order to catch their breath. Rabastan rubbed his face roughly before he had muttered as he sat up, "damn you, Madara, I hope you burn in a thousand hells for what you've put our families through!" He then rolled out of bed, a habit from his life as Hashirama was urging him to check on his baby, now elder, brother.

At the same time that Rabastan was cursing Madara, Rodolphus was wondering how to break the news that he was the reincarnation of Tobirama Senju to his boyfriend, Shisui Uchiha. After several long moments of pondering the problem he rolled out of bed to do what he used to do when he needed to think; train and if that failed, try creating new jutsu's. As he rolled out of bed, his door opened, when he looked up he noticed Rabastan's stressed state and he quirked an eyebrow at him as he asked, "bad dream, Hashi'-Chan?"

Rabastan snorted before he nodded as he leaned against the doorjamb and as he watched Rodolphus dress he said, "yeah, or rather a bad memory," at the curiosity filled look that his brother gave him he explained, "I dreamed about the Valley of the End. As well as the events that preceded it," he shut his eyes and shook his head with an angry look upon his face. He then snarled angrily, "every time I think about or remember what that bastard did to our Clan and his own, it makes me want to hunt him down and gut him!"

Rodolphus snorted and waved his hand dismissively as he commented, "go right ahead, big brother, don't let me be the one to keep you, hell," he grinned viciously. "I'll even help you do it, after all," he scowled angrily as his eyes flashed, "he's the one who caused the other clans to distrust the Uchiha. No matter how much the two of us vouched for the rest of the clan, they all wondered when the rest of the Uchiha Clan would betray the village as well." He shook his head bitterly as he thought about what Shisui had told him about the order for the clan to be killed and thus the reason that the entire clan save one member fled the village. As well as the reason that almost all of Konoha believed that the entire clan had been slaughtered by the Clan's own prodigy who was the youngest to have graduated the academy as well as the only ANBU, as far as the village knew anyway. Kushina had an entire cell of Konoha Shinobi that she had personally trained as ANBU operatives and they answered to her alone, they didn't even listen to Minato unless Kushina told them to obey an order or directed them to obey his orders while she was gone.

Rabastan snorted as he asked, "so what had you up and about so early Rodolphus? You're not exactly a morning person unless you absolutely have to be, you rarely ever got up in time to get breakfast and the first classes of the day."

Rodolphus sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as he muttered, "bad memory combined with the problem of how to break the news that I used to be the Nadaime Hokage to Shisui. After all," he smirked sardonically as he said, "that's not the sort of news that your older boyfriend beaks to you very often. Isshin at least somewhat remembered his life as Mito Uzumaki and knows that Masaki was reincarnated as the Shodai Hokage who died and then was reincarnated as you."

Rabastan conceded his brother's point with a tilt of his head as he murmured, "quite true," he slapped his older, younger, for the King's sake they had better get this straight in their own minds, brother on the shoulder as he said, "something with come to you!"

Rodolphus groaned and shook his head at his brother's optimism before he walked out of the room to go to the training grounds behind the villa.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^End Flashback^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

After several hours of the group telling Kushina how they were still alive, apparently the misadventure to the Ahm Shere Oasis had earned them partial immortality, they could still die but it would be extremely difficult to kill them. They would apparently never die of old age since, except for Alex, none of them had aged after the Oasis incident and Alex ceased to age after he had reached maturity. Ardeth had asked the other Medjai to come to the oasis, both Evelyn and Alex had been assured that Anubis had no interest in either of their mates souls.

While she waited for them to return Kushina had summoned several Jackal warriors, she was wielding Thanatos' blade as she fought them, when they had returned they all saw Kushina leap over a swipe and took off one of the Jackal warrior's head. Anubis was watching his Mistress fighting the members of his army with a smile on his face, although the jackal's couldn't predict her moves like Kenpachi it was clear from her face that she was still having fun sparring with them. The gold eyed spirit looked up at them and waved them over to him, once they had reached his side he had said, "she'll be don soon, she just needed to stretch her muscles."

Imhotep stood next to Alex as the dark god had spoken, with three quick moves the remaining five jackals disintegrated into dust and Kushina dropped the scythe she'd been wielding. To all of those who were watching's surprise the weapon disappeared before it ever touched the ground, only the most observant among them noticed that a previously blank spot on one of her bracers gained a bird holding a scythe. She then rolled her neck and rotated her shoulders as she approached them, she then picked up a towel and as she wiped the sweat from her face she asked, "so what did you decide in regards to my proposal?"

"Although your offer to allow us to reside within the oasis is generous," Ardeth slowly began before he said, "however, I cannot see how we can prevent ourselves from accidentally interfering in the tests." He held out his hands humbly as he said with a grim smile, "so as much as we wish to accept your proposal, we must decline. We can, however, settle nearby," he added absently as he contemplated where to settle his people.

Kushina blinked before she said with a smug smile, "if those are your only objections then I can easily rectify them," to everyone's surprise she opened her arms wide and tilted her head back to look at the open skylight. Soon a rumble began as the ground started to shake under them, all along three sides of the oasis, stone cliffs began to rise above them until they towered fifty feet above the oasis to the south, east and west. The eastern and western walls continued for over fifty miles past the oasis, a fourth wall appeared between the oasis and the desert flanked by the cliffs. With a flick of his hand, Anubis allowed the group to see what his mistress and commander of his army was doing to the new desert valley.

A river sprung forth and created a deep lake and several streams while grass, plants and grain sprouted in the valley, as that was happening, buildings began to form by themselves. Finally, a fifth wall appeared at the end of the new valley, only a crevasse big enough to allow a caravan wagon down connected the village that dwelled within the new valley and a crevasse of similar size connected the valley to the oasis. As they gaped at the scene of the new valley Kushina opened her eyes as she said, "there, problem solved. I believe that your people can live quite comfortably in the valley and use the oasis to harvest crops along with being able to hunt or fish."

She then smirked at Ardeth before she asked with a falsely innocent tone, "do you have anymore objections to my proposal?" After several negative gestures from the Medjai she beamed as she said, "good, then we are in agreement. The Medjai people will settle in the valley and guard the entrance to the oasis."

########################################################################

While Kushina was badgering the Medjai into accepting her offer of living in the valley and becoming the guardians of the oasis, Luna and Sajin were exploring a dense forest. Alright, so Luna was the only one exploring while Sajin was merely keeping close eye on her, it was the thought that counted. As they walked, Sajin asked a question that had been puzzling him for a while, "Luna," she hummed in response so he continued, "why did you no seem surprised that the Shinigami existed? Everyone else questioned it but you did not," he rumbled as he stepped over a fallen tree before he helped her over it.

As he set her down she had smiled sadly up at him as she said softly, "I never told you about my mother's death, have I," she questioned rhetorically. Luna sat down on the fallen log as she said with misty eyes, "my mother was a spell crafter, she invented spells both from scratch and from old forgotten spells. When I was young, about five to six years old, my mum was attempting to recreate an ancient shield charm," she bit her lower lip and closed her eyes as she said, "but it backfired. When she had attempted to test on how much it could absorb before breaking she cast a spell at it, however, instead of absorbing the spell like she and the others thought it would, it reflected the spell back at her."

Sajin's eyes had widened in shock, he knew that the only way that she could have known such details was if she'd been there to see it, his worst fear was confirmed when she said, "mum died instantly. She had no hope of dodging the spell," she shook her head as she remembered that long ago day. She then glanced up at him as she said, "a few moments later a shinigami arrived to send mum's soul to the Seireitei, after he had preformed the Konso on my mum I decided to ask him a few questions."

She then giggled as she remembered the wide eyed look that the man had given her when she had begun to interrogate him on what he had just done to her mum. Her blue eyes sparkled as she grinned up at him as she said happily, "he was so startled by me being able to see him that he answered my questions without thinking too much about them. So you see," she tilted her head to the side as she said happily, "by the time I had met you, I'd already known about the shinigami for years."

She then led the stunned Captain deeper into the woods cheerfully, he shook his head but placed his hand in the pocket of his Haori and fingered the box within it. He knew then and there that he had made the right choice, Luna would forever keep him on his toes no matter how long they were together for.

########################################################################

Tetsuzaemon sighed as his mother met his future mother-in-law for the first time, unfortunately for him, the pair seemed to be getting along fantastically and eager to plan the wedding of their children. Ginny merely chuckled at the long suffering look that was plastered over her promised one's face, she patted him on the arm as she cheerfully said, "that's what you get for announcing your intent to promise to me in front of our mothers. You knew how they can get for weddings and future grandchildren, after all, mom was over the moon with happiness when she had found out that Bill and Fleur were marrying in December. Same with both Percy's engagement to Isane and the twins impending bonding to Yumichika," she added thoughtfully.

"I'm attempting to keep from thinking about that, my dearest witch," the dark haired man muttered to her, his words had caused her to start laughing uncontrollably. When their mothers glanced over at them inquiringly Ginny had merely waved her hands dismissively so they wouldn't ask what she was laughing so hard about.

She pulled him away from the area as she said, "lets go visit Charlie and Tia, I've been meaning to ask what's going to happen to Emilio." At his blank stare when she had said the name, she rolled her eyes as she sighed before she said with raised eyebrows, "the dragon that hatched last winter, the one that Tia and Charlie have been looking after."

Tetsuzaemon blinked before he shook his head over the name but followed his witch along the trail toward Charlie and Tia's villa, which had been placed next to a dragon enclosure. The six month old hatchling was a third of it's future adult size, when dragons reach ten months in age their mother will often lay another set of eggs to brood over. During this time, in the wild and on reserves, the father teaches the hatchling how to hunt while hand raised dragons are often harder to teach how to hunt.

Kushina had volunteered her services to teach the hatchling how to hunt since she sometimes employed the same methods of hunting as Hebridean blacks when she played hunter on Elysian Isle. After a thirty minute walk, the pair had reached the villa, Tetsuzaemon felt Tia's spiritual pressure in the enclosure, so he led Ginny toward the compound instead of going up to the villa.

When the pair went inside they found Tia watching Charlie giving Emilio a bath, Ginny laughed at the way her older brother was soaked in soapy water while the hatchling was mostly dry and soap free. The burly red head glared at his baby sister, the dragon tilted it's head tot the side and crooned at them inquiringly. Unlike the Celestial and Imperial dragons that called the island home, he couldn't speak any of the human tongues but he could understand all of the human tongues. After she had stopped laughing at him, Charlie asked, "so what brings you and Tetsuzaemon by to see us," he had continued to soap the wing stretched above him as he had spoken.

Ginny smiled at him as she said, "just getting away from our respective mothers," she rolled her eyes as she commented wryly, "mum and Uguisu-san have similar personalities, so they're still gushing about grand children. Plus," she added cheekily, "I wanted to know who next years dragon lessons are going to go."

Tia snorted before she said, "the same way it happens naturally, he won't leave us until it's time for him to be on his own. We'll have a new egg in December but lessons will remain the same," she waved her hand to dismiss them as she said, "I'll take him hunting while Charlie broods over the new egg." At that announcement Charlie had spluttered while Ginny and Tetsuzaemon laughed ,over Charlie's head the dragon she had a look on her face that he normally only saw on his mothers face.

########################################################################

As Minister Amelia Bones was giving a press statement concerning the destruction of the Dementors and the attempt on her life by Death Eaters. After the debacle with the train two months before it had been decided to ask the Shinigami to eliminated the foul creatures, her guard, Yahiko, was leaning against the wall behind her. Both the public and her own people had gotten used to the sight of the tall orange haired man, however, only Bones was aware that he was a Shinigami and whenever her niece, Susan needed a guard Yahiko would create a clone to do the job. When Amelia had questioned him about it he had only remarked, "I'm fond of her, she reminds me of two old friends and I miss them both dearly."

Amelia had ceased questioning him on it due to the sad look that had flashed across his face, she knew that sort of look, it often appeared on the faces of those who had lost people they loved dearly and knew that they would never see them again. Of course, Yahiko would see them again one day after they had died as well , unless he died in his duties as a Shinigami before they did. Later on, Amelia had overheard Yahiko telling Susan about two friends of his who had helped him form a refugee faction in his homeland called Akatsuki, or Red Dawn.

"You would like Nagato and Konan," she heard Yahiko saying as he chuckled lightly, "our people used to call Konan, the paper angel of Amegakure and Nagato could be far too serious for my comfort. But," he paused as he smiled in fond sadness, "that was Nagato for you, serious to a fault. He took my death quite badly," he winced as he remembered just what Nagato had done in response to his death, Susan had already been told that Yahiko was a Shinigami so she wasn't surprised that he was dead.

As he kept an eye on Amelia and the others for any potential threats from the crowd, which he knew would be unlikely to try anything after the example he made of the first attempt on Amelia's life. Only long practice kept the amused look off of his face as he remembered the looks of respect, fear and awe that had appeared on both the Aurors' and the Death eaters faces in regards to said threat. He smirked as he recalled the event, although the crowd had noticed the smirk they had dismissed it as unimportant since Amelia had just made a sarcastic and caustic remark in regards to Voldemort's competence.

Yahiko allowed her voice to flow over him, his senses were still automatically scanning for threats while his mind took him back to a week ago. The day of the attempt was a rather sunny day, for London's standards anyway, Susan had been visiting Hannah at her house and Amelia had decided to have lunch in the alleys instead of her office.

As they had walked toward the restaurant that she had allowed Yahiko to pick, several Death Eaters had portkeyed into the alley, within moments of appearing they had the pair surrounded. However, before anyone, Death Eater or civilian alike, could make a move Yahiko had smirked and moved, with five sharp moves he had knocked fifteen Death Eaters unconscious. Amelia had merely raised an eyebrow as she walked past Yahiko to step over a Death Eater, as she did she had growled, "a little slow today, Yahiko, but good job."

Yahiko had smirked as he held out his hands to the side in a 'what can you do' gesture as he said cheerfully, "I had been planning to play with them a bit but apparently they're even weaker than I thought." the Aurors had arrived in time to hear both the Ministers and her guards casual, as well as carelessly said, comments it was as if he really didn't care about the Dark Lords possible retribution.

Amelia had snorted as se stood a few feet down the alley as she said, "not everyone is as highly trained as you, Yahiko." She then said as she gestured to the unconscious Death Eaters, "take these idiots to the holding cells, Yahiko will deal with them after I've had lunch." Her steel colored eyes flashed as she smirked down at the Death Eaters and said in a chipper tone, which in and of itself made her former subordinates blanch, "he takes my safety very seriously and any attack upon me is a personal affront. After all, attacking me implies that they think they can take him out, " her eyes gleamed as she purred out, "failing to either at least hold their own for at the very least two minutes or take him out, is something he considers a personal insult. Since that implies that they thought he was weak enough for them to take out."

Four hours later, Yahiko strolled out of the cell area whistling cheerfully as he exited, all of the guards, Aurors, DMLE officers and the prisoners that were being held in the cells around the Death Eaters were all ghostly pale in shock. Yahiko had spent the last two and a half hours systematically breaking most of the bones in all of the Death Eaters bodies before having the bones healed via a potion. Which due to the fact that he hadn't set the bones before forcing the potion down their throats, healed wrong and had to be re-broken to be set correctly by a healer. At least that what should have happened, Yahiko had done all of the re-breaking and setting of the bones. As he did he had cheerfully explained just what would happen to the next person who attempted to take Amelia's life, one of the things listed by the orange haired man was castration via very blunt, dull knife.

Yahiko emerged from his memories as Amelia had finished her statement by saying, "Yahiko, of course, considers my safety to be paramount and he fully believes that there is no threat to my life from Death Eaters." His blue eyes gleamed as the reporters gave nervous twitters as they glanced at him, he leveled the best stare that he could make that screamed, 'cold blooded killer' at them. They shuddered in fear and as they walked back inside the Ministry, Amelia had murmured, "don't scare them too much, Yahiko."

As he walked just a step behind and to the left of her, he had muttered back, "better for them to be terrified of me then be afraid of you." She snorted as they entered the lifts so they could head back to her office, for Yahiko's comfort she had the room changed so she was more protected and she also had a couch installed so he could sit down if he wanted.

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A young woman looked up and noticed a man entering their village, his hair was waist length and was blood red, however at random points in his hair was black streaks, he was wearing clothes that people commonly used when traveling. However, she noticed a tattoo around his right wrist, the tattoo was a simple string of kanji that, when translated, said, ' _ocean of benevolence of the whirlpool Clan.'_ She had seen something similar before, when the Crimson Ghost had passed through to be more exact, she had questioned the other person about it and they had replied, "family tradition I'm afraid. We have the translations of our given names as well as our clan names tattooed on our dominate wrist as soon as we reach the age of majority or obtain a high status, such as promotion to Clan heir."

As she eyed the man curiously she idly wondered how the man was related to the Crimson Ghost, she quickly ordered her younger brother to tell the rest of the village not to bring up the Crimson Ghost. She didn't want to cause him any distress by mentioning a dead clan and kinsman to him, nor tell him that said person's soul was wandering restlessly.

As he approached her, she smiled in cheerfully greeting at him as she said, "welcome to our village, traveler-san. What brings you here," she asked softy as she continued to kneel the bread dough under her hands.

The grey-blue eyed man had smiled back her before he said, "hello, my name is Hiro and as for why I'm passing through your lovely village is simple. I'm merely passing through on my way back home, I've been away for several years," he explained as he watched her.

"Ah, it's always good to return home after a long time away," she said as she formed the dough into balls.

He smiled before he said softly, "I lost my hearts home many years ago when my sister died," he sighed and glanced at the sky, missing her wide eyed look as he said, "where I'm going isn't really home, it's just a place I like to stay." He had snorted lightly before he looked back at her as he asked, "I don't suppose you could point me toward the inn…"


	7. Chapter Six: Of Fights, Trades and Seals

**Chapter Six:** _Of Fights, Trades and Seals_

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Naruto leaned back against a tree on the outskirts of the camp, lying beside him was a small cheetah, it only went up to his waist, since it was lying down it's back was currently below his knee level. His head shot up at the light whistle from the darkness around him, a moment later a figure dropped down beside him, a blond eyebrow rose at the sight of the person who was now standing beside him. "Deciding to be a girl today, Sasuke," Naruto asked as he took note of the boy turned girl's outfit. Her hands and legs were wrapped like usual, however, instead of her habitual shorts, Sasuke wore tight dark blue leggings with a red skirt over it. She was wearing a mandarin style black tunic with a phoenix embroidered on the front of it while on the back was embroidered the Uchiha clan symbol.

Her black hair was pulled up into a ponytail, her dark eyes glanced at him at his question and hummed lightly before she said, "yeah, besides," she added with a smirk, "we should reach the border between Frost and Kaminari tomorrow afternoon. As you know, Sensei plans to enter us into the Chuunin exams if we're in the village," she then cocked an eyebrow at him as her eyes glinted mischievously. She then said with a grin, "how confused would both the civilians of Konoha and the Kumo Shinobi be if the Kumo teams thought I was a girl…" She trailed off as Naruto began to giggle, the cheetah lying between them began snickering as she listened to the humans conversation. After the pair had managed to stop laughing, Sasuke said, "go to sleep. Remember, Miaka-San wants to leave early so we can get there sooner than expected."

Naruto snorted but dismissed his cheetahs and clones before he headed to the tent, he then changed into his nightclothes and fell asleep. Meanwhile outside the camp, Sasuke had summoned five clones and six hawks. Two of the hawks were male while the other four were female, Sasuke snorted before she pointed at each clone as she said, "Nova, go with her," she had pointed at the clone on her immediate right before she pointed to her left and said, "Kaze, you're with her." Both small hawks nodded before they settled on their respective clones shoulder that had a leather guard over it, the now female Uchiha then pointed at the final three clones in front of her in turn. "Rikku," the female diplomat/spy landed on the shoulder of the middle clone while, "Satiah," went to the left clone and "Mizu," went to the right. Sasuke then said with a soft smile, "Solo, you're with me," out of the six hawks summoned Rikku had the largest wingspan of nine feet.

Both Sasuke and Solo watched as the five clones and hawks left to go do patrol, the hawk then settled onto Sasuke's shoulder. If it weren't for the training in chakra that allowed a Shinobi to augment their strength then neither Sasuke nor her clones would be able to bear the larger hawks weights. As it was the sheer size of them still made for precarious patrolling if the hawk wasn't in the air, Solo was perched upon a branch just above Sasuke's position, which was halfway up a tree. Thankfully all six hawks had excellent night vision and could see upward to two miles away from them so they were perfect as scouts and nighttime watchers/guards.

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Four hours later as the Caravan and team seven were making the final leg of their journey, one of the women of the caravan asked Kakashi, "Hatake-San," the silver haired man hummed lightly to show he was listening. "why has the young Uchiha become a girl… And just how did he do that anyway," she asked in a puzzled tone. Those near them listened in since Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi had been referring to Sasuke as a her or a she all morning so they were extremely curious as to the older Shinobi's answer.

Kakashi huffed a laugh before he said as he glanced at her, "Sasuke is merely playing a prank on the Kumo Shinobi and as of how he became a she is simple. Naruto created a jutsu that allows a male to turn themselves into a female version of themselves, what you're seeing is merely what Sasuke would have looked like if he had been born a she." At that all of those listening goggled at the teen before they turned their shocked gazes back toward Kakashi when he had idly commented as he turned a page in his book, "Naruto's taught at least three people how to perform the move. Myself is included in that number," he had tacked on the last part with a hidden smile as he ignored their stares he idly imagined what Obito would have looked like if he had known the move. He knew that if Obito had known the move when he had been alive then his teammate wouldn't have wasted a moment that he could have performed it but that was Obito Uchiha for you.

Unknown to Kakashi, the blond had taught the move when he first developed it to two other people and one of those two was currently pregnant. However, if anyone in Konoha, or any other country for that matter, learned about that little fact they'd probably faint from shock due to his choice of the paternal parent. Especially, his old fan girls, Kisame wasn't exactly their ideal form of beauty or indeed their preferred partner for the Uchiha even if said partner wasn't them. However it was Itachi's choice and the Crow summoner clearly adored his shark, even if Kisame still has no utter clue why his partner considers him to be perfect for him.

An hour after the conversation, the caravan approached the meeting point, as they did, a hawk landed on Sasuke's shoulder, the teen easily took the weight of the small bird. "Missing nins approaching from the east, south and west," she reported to her summoner.

Sasuke snapped her dark gaze toward her sensei and raised an eyebrow in inquiry, both Sakura and Naruto also stared at him with questioning looks, the silver haired man sighed but gave them a signal to have fun. All three gave him rather shark like grins before they fell into a discussion concerning a plan of attack on the approaching nins, they quickly decided that Naruto would be the rear guard while Sakura took the right side of the caravan to the east. As Sasuke fell into step by one of the wagons she dismissed her summons since she didn't want the Kumo nins aware of the fact that she had signed the hawk contract. Naruto had done the same with the few cheetah's and snakes he had summoned during the walk, before they had been alerted to the approaching Nuke nins the blond had a snake snoozing across his shoulders.

Sakura drew one of the girls of the caravan into a loud discussion on the current fashion gossip and what she found cute in a boy, the area that they were traveling through in caused sound to carry. Thus allowing for their conversations to be heard by both the Kumo nins and the group of Nuke nins. All of the nins, unknowingly shared the same thought, it was thought gleefully by the Nuke nins, however the Kumo ninja thought it with a sense of sardonic amusement and that thought was, ' _yay, it's a fan girl…'_

Twenty minutes later, the nuke ninja burst from the foliage and lunged at the three Genin, believing them to be the most venerable, to the surprise of the Kumo escort Kakashi merely leaned against the lead wagon and opened his book to begin reading. The other caravan along with their escort overheard as Miaka asked, "are you not going to assist your students, Hatake-San?" At her question the other group goggled as they all wondered just why the Copy-Cat ninja was training a group of Genin.

However, their unspoken question was answered before Kakashi had even replied to Miaka's query by the dark haired girls eyes turning red with black markings that began swirling. Their eyes had widened in shock when Kakashi commented in a extremely nonchalant tone, "my kids can handle a rather pitiful group like this by themselves perfectly fine." He then smirked at her before he quipped, "besides, Sasuke and Naruto inherited their mothers attitudes as well as their talents while Sakura is the only other person besides Iruka to be able to control the pair. So no, Miaka-San," he said as he returned his gaze to his book, "I'm not going to fight unless one of them gets too close for my comfort."

Naruto had swiftly knocked out just over a dozen enemy ninja, he had then started to, there was no other word for it, play with the last two Nuke Nins near his location. When a Nuke Ninja lunged at a child of the caravan, he was startled when a hand had clamped down on his shoulder and when he looked over that shoulder he was punched. To the surprise of the other six ninja near them, the one who had knocked the man unconscious was the innocent looking pink haired fan girl. Except she no longer looked so innocent anymore, nor was she acting anything like a fan girl.

Her punch had caused the ninja to fly through the air and slam into a large boulder, upon impact from the body the boulder cracked, she then turned her narrow green eyes upon the other ninja. To the amusement of Kakashi and Miaka's caravan, all six nuke ninja had given shrill girlish screams. The most amusing thing to them was the fact that all of the ninja were large burly men, yet there they were terrified of a little slip of a girl. However, their reactions mostly caused severe annoyance in Sakura, especially since as soon as she took one step in their direction had caused them to turn tail and run. They had begun to run faster when she had snarled, "oh no, you don't! No one gets away with running away from me in a fight," with that snarl she chased after them, as she did she summoned a pair of badgers, whose backs reached her hips.

As Sakura chased off after the men, Sasuke had finally knocked out her first two opponents, she then smirked before she caught the next pair with her eyes as her hands flew through a set of seals. "My mom liked to call this little move, ' _nightmares on a silver platter_ ' I think that the name is rather appropriate," with that said both men began screaming in pain and fear.

At that all of the people goggled at her in shock, that is everyone except her teammates, after nearly five minutes of the two men screaming Kakashi said, "I think that's long enough. You shouldn't keep them under it for too long, I'm sure that the head of Kumo's Torture and Interrogation squad would prefer to break them on his or her own." With a pout Sasuke released the men from her genjutsu and both men collapsed in front of her in an unconscious pile. When she turned her eyes toward another three men, they took one look at their four unconscious comrades before they ran away. Sasuke scowled before she growled in an outraged tone, "so they're going to make me chase them down are they…" Her scowl deepened further as she stomped off after them as she grumbled under her breath, "I hate it when my enemies do this, it pisses me off and ruins a perfectly good fight!"

Naruto snickered as he overheard the grumbling that Sasuke was doing before he put one of his opponents into a chokehold and while he waited for her to fall unconscious he asked idly, "Kakashi-Sensei, did your teammate, Obito, hate, chasing down enemies as much as Sasuke does?"

Inside of Naruto's seal a red haired man rolled his eyes and muttered to himself, "why yes, Naruto, he did and let me tell you something… Sasuke's mother was just as bad about that as her sons because Itachi-San really doesn't like having to chase down an opponent." Unknown to the fox however, Itachi had met someone who loved the chase and who was perfectly happy to chase down all of their enemies that Itachi didn't want to chase.

"Truth be told, Naruto-Chan," Kakashi said as he turned a page before he pinned the blond with a bland stare as he said in a deadpan tone, "Obito was much worse."

Naruto sighed as he shook his head ruefully before he dropped the unconscious ninja to the ground as he did his shadow clones were gleefully beating the rest of the Nuke ninja senseless. "I was kinda hoping that Sasuke was the exception not the norm, Sensei," the blond finally told him with a resigned expression.

Kakashi laughed before he told his student with an eye-smile, "Sasuke and Obito are the exceptions, your mother often joked that every once and a while the Hyuga blood in the Uchiha clan would be overridden by the Uzumaki blood." The silver haired man shrugged as he commented, "it was the Uzumaki blood combined with the Hyuga eyes that gave the Uchiha clan their Sharingan eyes. A female of the Uzumaki clan married a lesser noble of the Hyuga clan, this was from before the clan split into two," he frowned as he thought about it before he muttered, "actually I'm fairly sure that this is what caused that to happen…" He shook his head before he continued the explanation, "the man took a new clan name since he had been disowned by his own clan after the marriage went through despite their objections to it. The couple had chosen the name Uchiha as their new clan name and the man then swore the loyalty of his clan to his wife's clan ."

He shrugged as he said quietly, "the Uzumaki clan had supported their decision to marry, thus the loyalty oath," he hummed softly before he said with a hidden smile, "truth be told I think that loyalty oath is still in effect…" The Kumo ninja goggled at him in shock at the revelation that if the man hadn't refused to marry anyone but the woman he loved then the Uchiha clan wouldn't have existed at all.

Kakashi then continued to speak as he turned a page in his book, "the Uzumaki clan could be either serious or mischievous depending upon their mood and the situation. According to their family legend, the most dangerous members of the clan were the ones who were unpredictable or be serious and mischievous at the same time. After having watched your mother fight several times, I'd have to say I agree with the family legends." Kakashi then glanced up at him as he said blandly, "after her death and watching the Uchiha clan, I also agree with her statement that the more serious of the Uchiha clan took more after the Hyuga clan then the Uzumaki."

A moment after Kakashi turned back to his book, Sasuke stomped out of the woods and dragged three unconscious ninja behind her, she was scowling and after she dragged them to the middle of the clearing she kicked one of the groaning men between the legs as she snarled, "oh, shut up already!" Her actions caused all the males, minus Naruto and Kakashi, to wince in sympathy for the man, especially since his groans turned into a high pitched shriek before he blacked out. Kakashi raised his only visible eyebrow at his student before he said in a placating tone, "I don't think he's going anywhere, Sasuke-Chan, you don't need to hit him while he's down."

She scowled darkly at him before she growled, "I have every right to hit him while he's down since he and the other two made me chase them down. I don't appreciate being made to do that!" Her dark eyes flashed red as she snarled that before she crossed her arms over her chest and huffed as she looked away from him just as Sakura came out of the forest, she was also dragging a group behind her.

The pink haired girl took one look at the sulky brunette before she stated rather than asked, "they ran away from you and you had to chase them down," she sighed before she stated in a deadpan tone, "which, of course, you hate having to do." As she had spoken she had dragged her group toward Sasuke's pile of Nuke ninja. They had been bound using rope, most of the Kumo ninja were making mental notes on the three Genins but especially on Sakura since she was only using one hand to drag the six men. While Sasuke was clearly an Uchiha and thus someone that everyone knew was dangerous to be crossed, Naruto on the other hand, was a complete unknown until they can figure out who his parents were.

Sasuke snorted before she asked, "were your opponents as weak, sloppy and completely incompetent at fighting as mine were," the question was uttered in a sardonic tone.

Sakura snorted in amusement at that before Naruto sighed and said in a chiding tone, "now, now, there is no need to be so bloodthirsty, Hawk, Badger," he had looked toward Sasuke as he said the first name then he turned to Sakura at the final name.

Both girls growled at him as they snarled in chorus, "shut up, Snake!"

Naruto pouted as he crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled to himself as he sheathed the swords he used to beat the last to Nuke ninja near him. As he did Sasuke glanced at them curiously before she asked, "aren't those the swords that your mother was wearing in those pictures we found."

Naruto beamed at her as he said happily, "yeah, Dad had these made for her when she had been promoted to Chuunin and when she'd been pregnant with me, Mom had left them with her summons." He looked down with sad eyes as he said quietly, "she had told them that if anything happened to her and I survived then they were to give them to me." Naruto had smiled at the blades in fond sadness, he didn't really remember his mother but several people had told him about her. And when he told Ryuu about some of his odd dreams, she had told him that some of them were actually memories.

Sakura tilted her head to the side and said, "how come they're not read then, in the pictures of your mother they were glowing red. So, why aren't they glowing now," she asked in a vaguely puzzled tone. At her comment quite a few of the caravans along with the Kumo escort froze in shock. There had only been one Chuunin to own a pair of swords that glowed red, Naruto's reply merely confirmed their fears.

"Because they're chakra channeling blades, like Kaka-Sensei's Tanto," the blond gestured to the man in question, who merely waved at them, before he said, "and I'm not channeling chakra through them right now. According to Mom's letter, the swords will only glow red for certain members of my family when they channel chakra through the blades. Others will get a different color altogether when they do that," at his teammates looks of comprehension he had beamed at them before he said gleefully, "watch, I'll show you!" With that he began feeding his chakra, which after having contained the Kyuubi near his chakra coils for almost twelve years was red, into the blades. The two swords started to pulse a blood/crimson red in time with Naruto's heartbeat, as they glowed a Kumo ninja stared at the blades in shock, her father had used a tale of one of his first missions as a Chuunin as her bedtime story. It had been a caravan escort mission, the caravan exchange had been attacked by missing nins like this one had, only the one her father had told her about had been attacked by S and A ranked missing nins. So either the Nuke nins that attacked this time were lower leveled or she really pitied the Genins that had to face team Seven in the next Chuunin exams.

However, she remembered how her father had said that the name of the woman who had wielded the red swords was Kushina Uzumaki, if this kids mother was indeed Kushina, then she'd know for sure that the two women were one and the same. While she contemplated the relationship between the blond and the Crimson blade wielder, Kakashi had whistled sharply before he said, "enough chatter, Team Seven, fall in!" He then looked at the leader of the Kumo escort and asked, "could you take them to your village to have the bounties collected? I'd do it myself but this mission is more important. That and your village is closer than ours and Suna," as he had spoke he had pointed at the pile of bodies behind him.

The leader was the woman whose father had told her tales of the caravan and it's protectors, she had nodded as she said, "of course, Hatake-San. I would ask the same if I was in your position, could I inquire the names of your students so their countries know where to send the bounty money and for the record?"

Kakashi snorted but nodded in agreement, he walked over to the three and as he said their names he walked behind them, "Sakura Haruno, Medic Nin in training," the pink haired girl got a clap on her shoulder. "Sasuke Uchiha, Genjutsu adept in training," the other girl received a tug on her ponytail, "and last but not least, Naruto Uzumaki, the most unpredictable knuckleheaded ninja in all of Konoha," the blond got a ruffle of his hair.

To the rest of the people's surprise, the leader of the Kumo escort asked as she cocked her head to the side, "any relation to a Kushina Uzumaki?" Her team gave her odd glances at that question while Kakashi's visible eye narrowed in suspicion.

Naruto stared at her before he said in a deadpan tone, "she was my mother," he then raised an eyebrow at her as he asked, "why did you want to know?"

She waved her hand dismissively as she said airily, "no real reason, my father had met your mother once," she smirked with wry amusement before she said, "he was very impressed by her." At that her entire team goggled at her in shock, they were shocked even more when she turned to Kakashi and said, "he was also very impressed by your father. Until they day my father died, he had a drink in your fathers name on the anniversary of your fathers death," she shook her head as she said, "he told me this: ' _ **Sakumo Hatake was a good man and a hero of his country. Despite being an enemy he deserves to be honored for that,'**_   I've never forgotten my fathers words even though he only ever said that once to me."

As she had spoken she had written down the names of the three Genin on the scrolls that held the men that they had defeated. She noted that Naruto took down the most of them but he also played with them a lot less than the girls did. Sakura's tally had been seven, same with Sasuke, she had taken down two Mist nin, four from Rock and a single Waterfall ninja. Sasuke had also taken down four Rock nins but she had taken down three Mist nins not two. Naruto had taken out the remaining eight Mist nin, two Rock nins and the last five Waterfall ninjas. The mere size of the group had made her suspect that the group was low level Nuke nins since higher ranking Nuke ninja rarely ever traveled with any company.

Once the paperwork had been signed and exchanged, much like the caravans had been, Team Seven had gotten underway toward their next destination. As they walked back to Kumogakure, the leader was asked by her second-in-command, "why did your father respect them so much," the second-in-command was from a civilian family and had no one to tell about old missions.

She had chuckled as she said in a higher tone of voice, "the reason my father respected them was," she caught herself and corrected by saying, "is simple. Kakashi Hatake's father was Sakumo Hatake, AKA, the White Fang of Konoha and Kushina Uzumaki is better known as the Crimson Blade of Konoha, both of them were not Shinobi to be crossed." She smiled wryly as she said, "I find it rather ironic that my father had met them on this exact same escort mission that I just met their children on." She had flashed a grin at her subordinates before she commented in a serious tone, "mark my words, those three Genin will be just as well known, if not better known, as their teacher." After she had said that some of the newer Chuunin's protested and Miaka had cleared her throat. Once she had their attention, she began the tale of her childhood encounter with the White Fang and his partner, the Crimson Blade.

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A week later, the caravan along with their escort and the prisoners had arrived in Kumogakure, after they had checked in and escorted the caravan to their usual lodgings. The group had wrote their reports then turned them into the mission desk to be read over and filed. The leader had turned in her report along with a small note before she handed over the scrolls containing the prisoners to the Torture and Interrogation squad.

Two hours after she'd handed in her report, it was on the desk of the Raikage, A's brother came into the office to find the Kage reading the note and he read it aloud from over the older man's shoulder. " _ **To whom it may concern, these are my notes concerning the three Genin underneath Kakashi Hatake.**_

_**Sakura Haruno: She's far stronger than you would expect from a girl her size and looks. It appears that she acts like a fan girl to throw off her opponents, she is also a summoner of Badgers. It is unknown if her strength is the result of a bloodline limit or if its just a chakra augmentation.** _

_**Sasuke Uchiha: she uses Genjutsu, apparently she has activated her Sharingan. She seems to be a bit bloodthirsty and severely dislikes having to chase down fleeing opponents. She seems to rather enjoy making her enemies scream in pain and fear.** _

_**Naruto Uzumaki: he is the only son of the Crimson Blade, his father is unknown to me and he didn't mention his fathers name to anyone. He doesn't seem to be interested in playing with his opponents like his teammates do, he's more apt to punch them in the face. I was unable to recognize the Taijutsu he was using and the only ninjutsu he preformed was the Shadow Clone Jutsu, which only implies that he had a large amount of chakra for his age.** _

_**Notes: As I wrote earlier, their sensei is Kakashi Hatake, AKA, the Copy-Cat ninja, he had remarked that both Naruto and Sasuke inherited their mothers temperaments and talents. He also said that their teammate Sakura, is one of the few who can control them with ease, he mentioned that she was second only to someone named Iruka. I highly suggest that any Kumo ninja who encounter them proceed with extreme caution if they attempt to take on Team Seven. I also suggest that if any of the Kumo Genin take part in the Chuunin exams this upcoming exam be told to avoid Team Seven at all costs.** _

_**Signed,** _

_**Natsukai Kasimura."** _

B then snorted as he said, "father unknown, my ass," he then picked up the sketch of Naruto as he said while waving it around, "it's rather obvious who his father is even if his not using his fathers last name!"

A snorted but said as he took the sketch back form the rapping Jinchuuriki, "yes, it is and his sensei is the only child of his mother's partner as well as being the only surviving student of his father. Obviously, Hatake requested that he be placed in his team," he then held up the leaders report as he said, "he has also trained them well. All of the Nuke nins that his students took down so easily were all either B or A ranked in level, the fact that Hatake wasn't the least bit concerned caused our Shinobi to believe that the Nuke nins were C ranked at max."

B glanced over the report as he said, "so the son has the mothers swords and favorite jutsu," he raised an eyebrow as he smirked before he said, "kinda makes you wonder what he got from his father, huh?"

A gave him a conceding nod before he began filling out paperwork for the three Genin, B snickered at parts of the files and wondered what the reaction their people would have if they read the three files. He then read all three files aloud and commented on certain parts of it, " _ **Name: Sasuke Uchiha**_

_**Age: 13,"**_ he raised his eyebrows at that before he remarked, "so she's only thirteen and took down at least seven B and A ranked Nuke Nins? She's good," he shook his head before he continued to read her file aloud, _**"Official Rank: Genin**_

_**Suggested Rank: High Chuunin,"**_ he stared at the paper then glanced at his brother and Kage before he said in a dead pan tone, "High Chuunin, isn't that pushing it a little, maybe mid-Chuunin would be better…"

A glanced up at his brother and said, "she took down not one, not three but five A ranked Nuke nin's by herself, if she's not High Chuunin then I'm going to be boggled at the incompetence of the Konoha council."

B shook his head but continued to read the file on the black eyed girl, " _ **Teammates: Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki**_

_**Teacher: Kakashi Hatake** _

_**Summons: Unknown if she has signed a contract or not."**_   He snorted and muttered to himself, "she probably has a contract with some type of bird, her brother Itachi had a contract with crows and if I remember right her mother Mikoto had a contract with Eagles." He then turned his attention to the notes at the bottom of the file and read them aloud in shock, " _ **Notes: She is a rather bloodthirsty person and loathes having to chase down her opponents. Approach with caution, although far less temperamental then her teammate Sakura, she does have a temper. She appears to like using Genjutsu's and is talented at it, this implies that she has immense chakra control."**_

B looked at his brother before he commented blandly, "if this is what the first Genin's file looks like then I'm not to sure I want to see the other two files," he then raised an eyebrow and asked, "are you going to make a file on their teacher to disperse among our people?"

A blinked before he muttered to himself, "that might be a good idea actually, especially since we're writing files on his three students. Hatake-San might end up being like his own sensei and only train one team…"

B ignored his brothers rambling to read the next file aloud, " _ **Name: Naruto Uzumaki**_

_**Age: 11** _

_**Official Rank: Genin** _

_**Suggested Rank: High Chuunin** _

_**Teammates: Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno** _

_**Teacher: Kakashi Hatake** _

_**Summons: unknown if he has signed a contract or not.** _

_**Notes: Approach with caution, he's the son of the Crimson Blade and wields her swords. He's capable of using the Shadow clone jutsu but his full repertoire is unknown. Although I have an idea as to who his father is I shall not mention it until he has reached Chuunin rank due to the respect I feel for his mother, her partner and the man I suspect of being his father. I find that I'm eager to go to the next Chuunin exams, I've decided to attend with B and Yugito as my bodyguards."**_   B stared at his brother before he asked in a deadpan tone, "you're attending the Chuunin exams that will be held in Konoha? After all these years of refusing to attend the exams whenever they are held there, you're finally going all because of the report of the Uzumaki kid? Why?"

A glanced up at him from his current task of writing a file on Kakashi long enough to say, "well to be quite frank, I owe Minato Namikaze for your sanity and continued presence by my side. Besides I want to see how well this Team Seven does in the exams and Yugito needs to get out of Kumogakure every once and a while." With that said he turned his attention back to the sheet of paper in front of him and began writing again with intense concentration.

B goggled at the man he called his brother and tag team partner before he turned his attention back to the third file in his hand, " _ **Name: Sakura Haruno**_

_**Age: 12** _

_**Official Rank: Genin** _

_**Suggested Rank: High Chuunin** _

_**Teammates: Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki** _

_**Teacher: Kakashi Hatake** _

_**Summons: Badger Contract** _

_**Notes: Use extreme caution with her as she is far stronger than she appears to be and apparently has a temper to match. She is capable of keeping her teammates in line and has the respect of the badgers."** _

B did not deign to make any comments about her file like he did her teammates and A rose from his seat as he commented, "lets go eat, I'm feeling famished besides we need to check on Yugito to see how she's recovering from her injury. I need her ready to go for the Chuunin exams and those take place in a mere three months or so." B looked back and glanced at the file lying open on A's desk.

_Name: Kakashi Hatake_

_Age: 26_

_Rank: Jounin/ex-ANBU_

_Students: Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki_

_Teacher: Minato Namikaze_

_Notes: see his Bingo Book Profile for details. Do not cross, he has trained team Seven for the last three months and has managed to bring them up to High Chuunin level in that short amount of time so be cautious._

################################################## ######################

Sasuke was walking ahead of the caravan, she heard Sakura and Naruto chatting from their positions, Naruto was perched atop the rear wagon facing backwards while Sakura flanked the left of the caravan. Kakashi was on the right side, Sakura still had one of her badgers out from when she'd been on watch the night before. It was padding along beside her, the caravan they were escorting not only had less items and people but it also had fewer wagons so it was taking far less time to travel then with the other caravan. They had already crossed the border between Hot Water and Fire, they were making their way to the land of Rivers so they could cross over it into the land of Wind.

She glanced at the surrounding area and calculated how long it would be before they neared Konoha, from her guess it would be around a week to reach the land of Rivers at their current rate of speed. It all depended upon how fast they could travel combined with how long they were willing to travel, as it was they had been traveling since dawn until shortly after dusk.

"Hey, Sasuke!" The dark haired girl had glanced back at the shout that had come from Sakura, once the pink haired girl had gotten the brunettes attention she had continued by asking, "do you think that the Kage of Kumo is going to come to the upcoming Chuunin exams?"

She gave a shrug before she said idly as she stared up at the sky as she walked, "I don't know for sure but he might since I think Kumo plans to enter a couple of teams into it." She then gave the other girl a smirk as she said, "I fully plan to blow all the other competition out of the water when we take the exam." Her eyes gleamed as she said darkly, "after all, we do plan to be more infamous than the Sannin, the Yellow Flash, the Crimson Blade and the White Fang combined!"

"Or at the very least, match their infamy," Naruto interjected idly, Sasuke conceded the blonds point with a nod, all three of them knew that even if all of the other countries considered Naruto to be more famous than the Yellow Flash, in Naruto's mind, he would always try to surpass the man. But that was due to him being Naruto's father, not because he was the Yellow Flash but simply due to a child's desire to make their parents proud of them. Unknown to Team Seven, Minato/Kisuke was already immensely proud of his son and he doubted that the blond child could ever disappoint him since Naruto acted far too much like his mother for that to happen easily.

Kushina was also proud of him due to how quickly he had picked up her old moves, she also doubted that her son could ever disappoint her. Even if he decided to abandon Konoha and join with Madara, then and only then would she even become slightly disappointed in his choices. Just as she was of her baby brother's choices, Kimihiro had decided against joining Konoha's ranks, or any other countries for that matter, after the destruction of their village. She hadn't blamed him at all for that, she was just disappointed in his choice but never in him, she told him as much when he had questioned her on it. A fact that Kimihiro had never forgot, even years after her death, he kept both her words and Minato's written offer for him to join the ranks of Konoha at anytime he chose to join as well as at any rank he chose.

In the letter was a standing order for Konoha, if Kimihiro ever came to Konoha he was allowed to use either the Uzumaki compound, long since left empty since the destruction of the Village Hidden in the Whirlpools. Or if Kushina and Minato were deceased, the use of the Namikaze compound was to be granted. If they died after they had a child the letter stated explicitly that Kimihiro was allowed to lay claim to their child to raise or, if the child was a Genin, train as he saw fit. They also had given Kimihiro permission to claim their child as his heir if he wished to do so, in a sense the pair had left a small last will and testament with Kushina's baby brother. A fact that would shock the civilians of Konoha if they knew about it, as far as they were aware Kushina had niether a brother nor a child. Only certain members of the Shinobi forces were aware of the child and an even smaller number were aware of her brother.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sasuke caught sight of a large snake slithering through the underbrush, she recognized it as one of Naruto's favorite snake summons. To let the snake know that she had seen it and the scroll it had hidden, she began to lightly sing a song. A fact that had captured the attention of the caravan's children, Sasuke had learned the song from Naruto, who had in turn learned it from his Ryuu-Okasan. And although there was no music, Sasuke tapped out the beat on her hip as she sang, she also did a couple cartwheels as she sang the jaunty tune. As she preformed one of the cartwheels she had snagged the scroll and skillfully tucked it into her weapons pouch, only her teammates realized that though.

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Later that night after dinner, cooked by Sasuke at that, Naruto sent his clones to take care of the night watch, earlier in the day Kakashi had told his Genin to use their clones to do the night watch since they couldn't afford to be tired during the day. Once he had done that, Sasuke handed him the scroll she'd picked up earlier, the snakes had informed them as they passed through the area on the way to Hot Water that Kushina had some informants in the area. The snakes proposed that the informants might still be willing to give information to the snakes newest summoner. When Kakashi had stated his worry over the informants leaking the fact of Naruto's existence as Kushina and Minato's child to anyone, the snakes had stated, "Kushina-Sama had all of her contacts sign a secrecy oath. They cannot reveal any information pertaining to Kushina Uzumaki or any of her blood kin to anyone who, either hasn't already sworn the same oath or is a blood relative to Kushina."

Naruto opened the scroll to find three separate scrolls sealed inside of it, sealed within each of those were yet more scrolls, however these were clearly labeled with dates while the letter inside each of the three scrolls bore Naruto's name on them. He then proceeded to read them aloud to his teammates and teacher, " _ **Uzumaki-San,**_

_**You have no idea how glad I am to hear that your mother had a child before she died, those of us within her information network had feared that we would have no one to report to. However, I feel I must give you my condolences, your mother was a brave, tenacious, fearless, kind but formidable person. Most of her enemies had, at the very least, a grudging respect for her and her abilities. She was one of the most loyal people I knew, she stayed loyal to her partner and never took another after his death. Although, she did take some students as a compromise to her Kage, I've included several reports with my letter about various rumors concerning the area. Normally I wouldn't include my own suspicions but this time I have, I've heard too many things that I cannot confirm due to a blockade from the place.** _

_**Your friend,** _

_**Sincerely,** _

_**Hidiko Akosuka,"**_ Naruto stared at it before he said with a frown, "well that was an odd letter." With that said he placed the first letter down and picked up the second to begin reading it.

" _ **Greetings, Uzumaki-San, I was most pleasantly surprised to find Beka waiting in my garden for me this morning. I am delighted to know that your line survives according to your messenger, you resemble your Father greatly but the majority of your personality is all your mother. Thus it is with confidence that I have sealed my reports of activity in the area around my home within this scroll.**_

_**Sincerely,** _

_**Akino Himura,"**_ Naruto then placed the letter down before he picked up the third letter.

" _ **Uzumaki-san,**_

_**I was gladdened to hear of your survival, I feared that your mother had perished before she had birthed you. I'm afraid that I have nothing of real interest to report to you but I've included my notes about my observations from my travels. If you are indeed as much like your mother as Beka claims you are, then I cannot ask you to stay safe, so instead I ask that you be as careful as you can.** _

_**Your Ever Loyal Servant,** _

_**Ashe."**_ Naruto goggled at not only the way the spy of his mother had worded the letter but at the fact that the spy only used a single name. He then looked up at his teammates before he asked, "do you think we should read the notes over before we hand them over to the Hokage?"

Kakashi put down his book before he rose and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, "I'd suggest waiting until we're in Konoha to read them. But that's just my opinion," he called back over his shoulder as he rummaged through the cupboards for a glass.

Sakura shrugged before she pointed at Kakashi and said in a deadpan tone, "what he said, besides," she added in a chipper tone, "if we wait until Konoha to read them no one will interrupt us unexpectedly." Sasuke had nodded in agreement with the pink haired girl, so Naruto sealed all the scrolls back into the original scroll before he rose from his position. He then padded into his bedroom to go to sleep, the other three followed his example, the four changed into comfortable clothes that they wouldn't mind fighting in before they crawled into bed themselves.

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One week and four days later, the caravan crossed over into Wind, Kakashi had estimated that it would take them another three days to reach Sunagakure itself. He turned out to be right, once the caravan had been reassured that the four Shinobi were perfectly capable of keeping up with the horses most ground eating energy conserving pace, the trip had sped up considerably. They had ended up reaching Suna at nighttime and after they had checked in with the gate guards the four escorted the caravan to their usual spot before finding a place to bed down themselves.

Sakura and Sasuke, who was still in female form, shared a room while Kakashi did the same with Naruto, both rooms had a pair of queen sized beds in them. Before they had split up to go to bed Kakashi had warned the two girls, "make sure to get up early, we're to report to the Kazekage. After all I have a message to deliver to him," he had added before he turned away and led Naruto to their room. As he had spoken his only visible eye had a serious look in it so all three of the Genin knew that Kakashi wasn't joking with them as he was apt to do.

The next morning, the team met up in the lobby of the inn, both girls were wearing leggings and loose shirts to keep cool in anticipation of the later heat. Kakashi was dressed in his habitual outfit and Naruto was wearing a white shirt, blue pants as well as the same color arm and leg wrappings. All of them wore their forehead protectors in their usual locations, the blond noticed that Sasuke had painted, or Sakura had done it, her nails red with her Sharingan markings in black polish on them. Kakashi had promised the three breakfast after the meeting so he led them straight to the Kazekage's office, whereupon he gave the man a small respectful bow and his students followed his example.

"Kazekage-Sama," he had murmured before he presented the scroll sealed by the Sandaime Hokage. As the man opened it to read it, Kakashi had summarized his report for him verbally.

The Kazekage had hummed lightly before he said with serious eyes, "the plan looks sound enough but I do have some concerns. Would you be willing to wait until I have my reply ready for your Kage before you leave so you can deliver it?"

Kakashi nodded sharply before he said, "of course, the Hokage thought you might want to make a few revisions to the plan so he told us to stick around and bring your reply back to him." He then gestured to his students as he asked with a tilt of his head, "could we use one of your training grounds while we're in Suna?"

The Kazekage had already gotten back to his work so he merely waved his hand dismissively as he said loudly, "of course, you may use one of the training grounds. I'll send for you when I've completed my reply to your Kage," with that said he ignored them and Team Seven left the room then the building.

Six hours later, an hour after the team had finished their training for the day, Sasuke was strolling through the open market when she overheard a person muttering fearfully, "demon, demon be gone!" As she turned to reprimand her for referring to Naruto like that, she had assumed that her teammate had followed her to play a prank, she then realized that the old woman was staring at a red haired preteen. The boy was ignoring everyone and radiated a clear attitude of menace, similar to Naruto when he got pissed, pulled out his moms swords and made them glow blood red.

The dark eyed girl assessed the younger boy, she noticed the slight gleam of to his eyes that to most would look like insanity but she could tell actually meant that the boy was becoming desperate and could possibly tip over the edge soon if someone didn't pull him back. She also noticed the bags underneath his pupil-less eyes as if he didn't get much sleep, or if he got any at all. Sasuke was taken aback by her own urge to bundle the younger child up and mother him until that haunted look disappeared from his face. With a determined glint to her eyes and a firm set to her jaw she stalked over to him. She dropped down next to him, completely ignoring the looks of utter shock on the people of Suna's faces as she did, she placed her right arm across the back of the bench.

That action caused quite a few to gape in shock at the pair while Gaara frowned in puzzlement, he never had anyone since his uncle be this close to him without Shukaku start snarling at them. For once the Tanuki was completely silent as if it was shocked by this foreign girls audacity to be this close to the demon of Suna. "You are aware that you are sitting next to a demon, don't you," the red head managed to get out after several moments of silence.

At that comment, Sasuke had glanced over at him before she said with a politely confused tone of voice, "really? Which one are you then," at Gaara's question most of the Suna civilians had blinked, they had then blinked even more when they heard Sasuke's reply.

"The one tail," he finally answered her as he glanced away.

At that Sasuke snorted before she said in a casually negligent tone, "oh, well then I guess I know how cautious I should be of you then…" With that she looked up at the sky and utterly ignored the boy beside her, which caused both him and the people around them to gape at her. She opened a single eye from where she had closed it as if to say 'I needn't be concerned about you,' to state in a nonchalant tone, "if you think that you carrying the one tailed demon inside of you could scare me, you're crazy. After all," she added as she shut her eye again, "compared to Kurama, Shukaku is a fluffy kitten that has been de-clawed and whose growls sound like purrs."

She then chuckled suddenly as she commented, "besides, it's kind of hard to be afraid of someone who looks as if he hasn't had a good nights sleep in days."

She stopped laughing and began growling in anger when Gaara had said, "actually, I haven't slept since I was about four."

Her eyes narrowed as she snarled, "you mean to say that you haven't slept for around six years!" At his confused nod she leapt to her feet then reached down and grabbed his hand as she said, "I'm taking you to see Naruto, there has got to be something wrong with your seal!" More that a few people followed the pair to one of the eastern training grounds, in the training ground were three people: a silver haired man, a pink haired girl and a blond boy. She then marched Gaara up to the blond and demanded, "Naruto meet the Jinchuuriki of Shukaku, his name is…" She then blinked as she realized that she didn't know the boys name so she poked him in the shoulder and said, "tell him your name, Panda-Chan."

Gaara twitched at both the prod and the nickname but did as she bade with a sigh, "Gaara no Sabaku."

Sasuke blinked at the name before she said, "I like Panda-Chan better. Panda-Chan, meet Naruto, the Jinchuuriki to Kurama, otherwise known as Kyuubi no Kitsune." She then turned back to the blond, all of Team Seven were ignoring the gaping that the people of Suna were doing out of politeness after all it was bad manners to point out that they were showing emotion. "Take a look at his seal for me, Naruto," she said as she pointed at Gaara as she exclaimed, "he hasn't slept in years, that's not healthy!"

At that comment all three of her teammates stared at her in shock before the blond said, "that's not good!" He then turned to Gaara and asked him with a serious tone, "do you know where your seal is located at?" When the red head shook his head no, the blond sighed, "well," he tapped his chin as he spoke and his eyes were hazy as if he was thinking it over, "most seals are placed on the upper body if done during infancy so it's probably located there." He had then patted his stomach with a grin as he said, "mine is on my tummy, apparently the Yondaime decided that it was the best place to put it." He scrunched up his nose as he added in a puzzled tone, "although, I'd love to ask him just why he put it there…"

He shook his head wryly before he ordered the younger Jinchuuriki to remove his shirt, the red head glanced at Sasuke, who had merely nodded encouragingly, before he obeyed the odd order. "Now," Naruto said as he stepped toward the other boy, "I want you to form a Rams seal and hold it since I'm going to try to find your seal so I can study it so I can figure out just what's wrong with it. Okay," he asked with raised eyebrows, he refused to come any closer until Gaara had first nodded his agreement before he did as the blond said.

Naruto was looking over Gaara's back when the chakra flowed through the seal, thus causing it to be visible. When she saw it Sakura said, "it's on his front, Naruto."

He glanced at her over Gaara's shoulder before he nodded his thanks at her, he then walked around the green eyed boy. He took one look at where the seal had been placed before he started cursing in every tongue he knew, his words caused even the most battle hardened Suna Jounin's to blush and Kakashi to raise an eyebrow at it. Naruto's left eye was twitching angrily and he turned to Sasuke as he said with a grim look, "it's a good thing you brought him here. His seal is placed over his heart!"

The crowd around them stared at him in confusion while even Sasuke and Sakura looked puzzled along with Gaara, finally the red head asked, "what's wrong with it being over my heart?" He had tilted his head to the right as he stared the blond with confused green eyes, he was still trying to figure out just why his demon was so quiet around Sasuke. The apparent outrage that the blond had for the location of his seal merely added to his confusion over Sasuke's kindness and nonchalant attitude toward his Jinchuuriki status.

Naruto sighed but as he started unsealing his Sealing tools and began laying out what he would need to relocate the seal and improve it, he explained, "the location of the seal as well as the type of seal used can either hinder or help the host of the demon. The location and type that the Yondaime used to seal Kurama inside me helps me by allowing me to process the demons chakra, my seal acts as a kind of filter of sorts. It removes most of the taint from the demons chakra, thus allowing me to use it without almost any negative side effects. However," he frowned deeply as he continued, "the seal and it's location on you," he shook his head angrily as he snarled, "the one tail is able to feed it's hate and rage right into your heart while simultaneously taking every good emotion from you. The seal is so weak that the beast is able to speak to you and emerge if you are asleep or unconscious, long term sleep deprivation can cause neurotic and almost psychotic behavior in those experiencing it."

The villagers eyes had widened when Naruto began to explain why it was a bad idea to place a seal like Gaara's over someone's heart. As they stared at the five in shock, Sakura had asked in a curious tone, "what's the level of the seal?" They were confused as to why that was important, even Gaara was confused but he wondered if it had anything to do with the blonds comment about the weakness of his seal.

Naruto sighed before he grumbled, "I'd love to get my hands on a person who would use anything less than a five point seal to contain a demon." He glanced at the pink haired girl with a thin lipped expression as he said, "it's a two point seal, far less than what should have been used. My seal is one that was specially developed by the Yondaime Hokage as his Seal Mastery project, it's very strong but," he looked away as he said, "a seal is only as strong as it's bearers will." His blue eyes had flashed as he had said, "your seal's location combined with it's weakness prevents you from building the very thing that would have made the seal stronger. If I don't fix this," he pointed at the black lines on the red heads chest, "then one day your will to keep the one tail contained will break and it will be loose, free to wreak havoc as it pleases."

He scowled at the younger boy as he said while he lined up his inks and brushes on a mat, "so you are going to sit there and let me fix it because I really don't want to have to deal with Sasuke if that ever happens." He then turned to Sakura and said, "Sakura, I'll need you to check him over once we're finished with placing the new seal." She nodded in understanding, once she had Naruto turned to Sasuke and Kakashi, "I'll need the two of you to hold the one tail's chakra at bay. Kakashi-Sensei, I need you to unseal the beast when I give the order," the silver haired man nodded as he put away his orange book.

Everyone watched as Kakashi unsealed the demon and Naruto began drawing the seal as his right hand flashed through single handed hand seals, once the seal had been drawn he dropped the brush as his left hand took up the seals. He coated the other hand with red tinged chakra and slammed it into the seal drawn onto Gaara's left shoulder blade. The seal flashed white and the sand like chakra that had been pouring out of the old seal, only been contained by Sasuke and Kakashi's Sharingan's, was sucked into the new seal with an angry shriek. The seal had pulsed with energy before it faded from sight while the seal over his heart became fresh ink and Sakura wiped it off with an alcohol soaked cloth. After that she checked him over before she pronounced, "he'll be fine, he just needs sleep." She smirked as she said sardonically, "I think having the seal moved allowed his body to tell his brain that he was exhausted and that it's taking a time out until further notice. My suggestion," she said as she stood up, "is to allow him to sleep until he wakes up naturally."

Sasuke nodded at her as she gathered the smaller child in her arms, as she did she scowled at how light he was, it seemed that he also didn't eat much either. Whether that was due to his personal preference or to the Shukaku's influence from the seal she would find out later. Her first priority was getting him into a bed, she said as much to Sakura before she turned to a tall man with tanned skin and a turban which covered one of his dark eyes. "If you know where he lives then you had better take me there or I swear he's napping in my bed until he wakes up," she said with a dark scowl that she directed toward the staring villagers.

"I'd do as she says, she's kind of vicious when she's angry," Naruto commented as he gathered his supplies from the mat, he made a face at the ink splattered mat before he rolled it up. The man blinked but led the dark haired girl holding his Kazekage's youngest child to the house that Gaara shared with his siblings. Kankuro and Temari stared in shock at their sleeping brother as they followed them, they were astounded that the reason that their brother was so insane was due to his seal. Their sensei led the girl to an unused guest room since Gaara's room didn't have a bed in it, the three watched as she carefully laid Gaara on the bed.

However, when she tried to rise up so she could tuck him in, Sasuke was stopped short by his grip on her shirt and shook her head with wry amusement as she tried to pry his fingers from her shirt. Key word was try, since she had only succeeded in almost waking the red head, she sighed again before she glanced over her shoulder as she said, "looks like he doesn't want to be alone. I can't loosen his grip without waking him and I don't want to do that since this is the first peaceful sleep he's had in years…"

With that said she kicked off her sandals and slipped off her forehead protector before she began lining up her loose weapons on the nightstand. After she was done with that she slid into the bed beside Gaara, who immediately cuddled into her side. She started carding her fingers through his hair and hummed a song softly as she did so. Once the boy had slipped further into slumber, Sasuke bit her thumb and summoned a hawk, she ordered it to inform her team that she was being a body pillow to a sleeping Jinchuuriki and not to expect her back for training or even at the inn until he woke up naturally.

The man then led the two stunned siblings out of the room once they had exited the house, he told them, "I'm going to informed the Kazekage about this."

Temari's eyes flashed as she said in a firm tone, "we're coming with you, Baki-Sensei," she scowled darkly as she growled, "I want a word with whoever it was that did my baby brother's seal!" Kankuro nodded as he scowled his agreement to his elder sisters words, a look that combined with his kabuki makeup made for a hilarious picture.

When they reached the Kazekage's office they were surprised to find Team Seven, minus Sasuke of course, in the office. Sakura was watching with amusement as her sensei and Naruto berating an old woman about the proper methods of sealing. "Stick to poisons instead of seals, I don't need incompetents trying to pass themselves off as masters," was one of the more vicious comments from Naruto.

The Kazekage looked stunned at the information that the lecturing duo was giving him about his youngest sons actions, he appeared to be relieved when he saw his other children. "Baki, Temari, Kankuro, get in here," he ordered softly, as they entered he remembered the conversation he once had with Minato Namikaze about Jinchuuriki and idly wondered if Kushina Uzumaki would be fuming over how he treated his youngest.

He huffed a soft laugh as he thought to himself, _'she'd probably be as angry as her son about his treatment and Minato would be just as angry about it.'_   He then cleared his throat and asked Baki, "how is my son?"

Baki nodded as he said, "when we felt the girl and Gaara, he appeared to be sleeping deeply, as far as I can tell he was content to keep a hold of her." He laughed softly as he rubbed the back of his neck before he said with a smile, "quite frankly, Kazekage-Sama, he refused to let go of her at all." He then turned to Team Seven and asked Kakashi, apparently he had left the berating to Naruto, "what is her name anyway? I'd rather not refer to her as 'the girl' until I can ask her myself."

Sakura laughed before she said with glinting green eyes, "you're right, you really don't want to do that. After all, that's pretty much a guaranteed way to make Sasuke swear vengeance on you!" She then collapsed into a fit of giggles, her words combined with the memory of Sasuke's dark glare caused Baki and the sand siblings to shiver in fear.

Kakashi rolled his eye before he said, "allow me to introduce you to my team, Kazekage-Sama." The man raised an eyebrow but gestured for the copy cat nin to go ahead, so Kakashi said as he pointed at Naruto, "the ranting blond over there is Naruto Uzumaki." He then pointed at Sakura as he said, "little miss giggles there is Sakura Haruno. My Genin that is currently cuddling your youngest child is Sasuke Uchiha," he smiled his customary eye smile as he commented, "apparently she's gained a maternal streak. Right, Naruto," he said with a questioning lilt to his voice.

Naruto paused in his berating of the old woman to tap his chin as he considered Kakashi's words before he blinked in shock as he screeched, "OH MY GOD! Sasuke's almost he perfect housewife!"

At that comment Sakura stopped laughing and stared up at him before she said with a raised eyebrow, "care to explain that comment, Naruto."

At that he raised his hand and ticked off each point to making, "Sasuke can cook, clean, balance a check book like no one else's business, do common household repairs. Just about the only think Sasuke can't do is laundry. Why do you think I do mine at her place, if I do Sasuke's laundry along with mine I get a free meal and a sparring partner." He then turned back to the old woman to continue his lecture, utterly ignoring the group behind him with ease as he did.

Kakashi shook his head and commented as he took out his book, "what do you know, Naruto's right about that. Sasuke would make the perfect housewife, so long as her partner knows how to do laundry!"


	8. Chapter Seven: Of Departures, Arrivals and Matchmaking!

**Chapter Seven:** _Of Departures, Arrivals and Matchmaking!_

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Three hours after Gaara's seal had been fixed and relocated to his shoulder blade, Sasuke looked up as the door to the room opened. To her surprise, the person who opened the door was Kakashi, who was standing next to the man who had led her to Gaara's house. The sliver haired man strolled into the room as he said quietly, "I see that your Panda-Chan is still asleep," he was holding a covered tray in his hands as he spoke.

Sasuke had paused her hand in mid stroke from where she'd been carding it through Gaara's hair, this action or rather lack of it caused the preteen to grumble unhappily. She soothed him in an absentminded fashion as she stared at her sensei with a raised eyebrow. Baki, however, was staring her and Gaara in shock, this was due to the fact that when Gaara had stirred from slumber slightly as she had stopped carding his hair the boy had whined, honest to Kami whined, "don't stop, mom…"

The tanned Jounin shook himself out of his daze as he heard Sasuke quietly say€, "yes, he's still asleep," she hadn't denied that she thought of the younger child as hers. In fact, if Baki's guess was correct then the Kazekage would be in for one hell of a fight if he tried to stop Sasuke from doing what she clearly considered her right. That right being the right to mother Gaara as much as she pleased.

Kakashi walked over to the bedside and set the tray down onto the nightstand on Sasuke's side of the bed as he said, " since even Sakura was clueless as to when Gaara would wake up… I made you something to snack on," he tapped her on the nose as he said sternly, "I expect all of it to be gone by morning. Understood my black hawk," he asked with a raised eyebrow that demanded an answer to his question.

She sighed but nodded as she said softly, "yes, I understand, Kakashi-Sensei," she had rolled her eyes briefly as she said in a bland tone, "I'll finish it all."

He rose from his crouched position as he said cheerfully, "good, I'll tell Sakura not to expect you back to your guy's room tonight." He then walked towards the door, he paused and looked over his shoulder at her as he said with a wicked glint to his eye, "by the way, Naruto reamed out Chiyo for you. However, I don't think he'll object reaming her out as well," at her confused glance at him the silver haired man explained, "Chiyo is the woman who sealed Shukaku inside of Gaara." He gave her another eye-smile as he chirped, "Naruto was quite insulting in his assessment of her abilities at the art of sealing, which is to say, none."

She gave him a bland stare before she said in a deadpan tone and unknowingly echoed her teammate, "anyone who is stupid enough to place a seal to hold a demon over someone's heart is an idiot not to mention completely incompetent, Kaka-Sensei." She rolled her eyes and as she watched the two Jounin's leave the room she then summoned Solo, the hawk landed on the headboard, as he stared down at her curiously. The other hawks had been told by Kaze that their summoner seemed to have adopted a fellow fledgling, to put it in bird terms, as her own. "Can you guard the room while I'm sleeping, Solo," asked Sasuke as she retrieved the tray and uncovered it.

"Of course I can, Mistress," the small bird replied as he gazed around the room taking note of the rooms layout, while he was speaking the dark eyed teen had begun eating. Kakashi had made simple finger foods, such as sandwiches, curried pork empanadas and tomatoes on toast, thus foods that Sasuke could eat with only one hand if need be. When she had sat up Gaara had grumbled sleepily before he snuggled closer to her as she had rubbed his arm soothingly. She scowled around her empanada as she realized just how deprived her Panda-Chan had been of simple human contact. He had been so surprised when she had been willing to touch him to lead him to Naruto to have his seal checked out, silently she vowed that if it was the last thing she did, she would get him used to human contact and even initiate it while awake

As she slowly ate her meal/snack, she contemplated if she should find Gaara a friend among the Konoha Shinobi, a smile stole across her face as the perfect person to not only get Gaara used to human contact again but to also get him used to people not being afraid of him cam to her mind. She remembered the rather odd encounter she had with said Shinobi, she had managed to work out a deal with her fellow Genin and had learned several of his moves if she allowed him to sign one of the summoning contracts her family held. If anyone would happily accept the Challenge, and yes the C was capitalized on purpose, of becoming Gaara's friend and casual sparring partner it was her rather odd friend. She smiled down at Gaara in wry smugness, she ruffled his hair as she said softly, "don't worry my little Panda-Chan, I know the perfect friend for you. He may be a little oddly enthusiastic but it's part of his charm and he certainly won't be afraid of Shukaku at all." Her dark eyes twinkled in amusement as she shook her head with a grin before she muttered, "hell, I'm pretty sure he'll start challenging you for a sparring match every time you turn around once he finds out…"

After she finished off her meal, all the while still chuckling over her plan, vague as it was, she then placed the tray back onto the nightstand while still leaving her weapons in clear reach. Not that Sasuke even needed a bladed weapon to be able to kill while still half asleep, she had a large enough repertoire that she didn't need them for that. Once she had placed the tray back down she slid back down to lie beside the red haired preteen, "when you finally wake up I'm going to feed you so much that you'll gain five pounds from it," she muttered as her eyes slipped closed.

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Just as the false dawn began to lighten the sky, Sasuke's eyes snapped open, she scanned the room with all of her senses and frowned in confusion when she found nothing that could have woken her. As she was about to fall back asleep, she felt as Gaara stirred drowsily, she had glanced down at him in time to see his green eyes open and their owner frown in sleepy confusion. "Good morning, cuddle bug," Sasuke said cheerfully as she channeled her inner prankster, a part of Sasuke that Naruto delighted in giving ideas to.

Those green eyes looked at her sharply and widened in shock at how close she was lying next to him, not to mention the grip he had on her waist, he flushed a bright red before he let go of her. He blinked in surprise when she sat up and said with a chuckle, "well, I guess I better feed you before your stomach starts to grumble about being empty," as soon as those words left her lips a growl resounded in the room. She got out of the bed and stretched, as soon as she saw the mess that her hair had gotten into during the night she had scowled unhappily before she picked up her forehead protector.

She had then unsealed a scroll from it, after that she unsealed a hairbrush from that as well as a hair tie, Gaara watched as the dark haired girl brushed her hair, she had started at the bottom and worked her way upward. Once her hair was untangled, she brushed it upward into a ponytail and tied it off with the hair-tie before she had sealed the hairbrush back into the scroll and the scroll back into the forehead protector. She checked her leg wraps before she put her sandals back on as well as her forehead protector before she put her loose weapons away. As she did that she said over her shoulder at the window, "you're free to go, Solo-Kun, I can handle the watch from here."

Gaara frowned in confusion before he heard a voice from the window sill, "very well, Mistress Sasuke," the red head glanced over at the voice in time to see a small hawk nodding to Sasuke. "Call us if you have need of us, Mistress," the hawk said as he did so, Sasuke muttered an agreement as she waved farewell in an absentminded fashion. He merely nodded farewell back to her as if he was used to her reacting in such an absentminded fashion before he vanished in a puff of smoke.

She then glanced over at Gaara, who was now sitting up and blinking bewilderedly, before she raised an eyebrow at him as she said, "you had better not be planning to stay in bed all day." She leveled a deliberately bland stare at him as she said, "because you're going to get up, wash up and eat everything I put in front of you. Got it," she asked with a raised eyebrow and her hands on her hips as she tapped her left foot. Gaara nodded slowly in reply and she beamed at him as she chirped, "good," she then walked over to the door. She looked over her shoulder as she ordered, "go wash your hands and your face, then come downstairs," with that said she left the room and the stunned red head behind as she made her way to the kitchen.

Twenty minutes later, Kankuro poked his head out of his room and sniffed the air curiously before he said, "huh, something smells good…" He then ducked back into his room to get dressed, he hadn't forgotten that they had a guest, and put on his face paint before he headed downstairs. To his surprise, Temari was watching their guest with a bemused expression while Gaara, much to his befuddlement and boy didn't this scene come as a total shock, was staring at her with an adoring expression plastered on his face. Sasuke was cooking, from what his nose was telling him, breakfast that consisted of bacon, eggs, hash browns and pancakes, she was dishing up the plates when he reached the table.

To his confusion there were five plates lying on the counter, each had a design on it, one had variously positioned Panda's on it, one panda was doing a headstand while another was doing a cartwheel yet another was doing a funky dance. Another plate had weasels dancing with fans or riding on fans, a third had puppets all over it, the fourth plate had tigers playing with lions on it. The final plate had hawks and the Uchiha clan symbol on it, Kankuro watched as she placed the panda plate in front of Gaara then the fan and weasel plate in front of Temari while he got the puppet plate. She placed the Uchiha fan and Hawk plate beside Gaara's, the tiger and lion was set down in front of another empty seat as if waiting for the person it was meant for to show up.

He glanced over at his sister, who merely shrugged before she began devouring her plateful of food, his silent questioned was answered when their sensei walked into the kitchen. "Have a seat and eat up," Sasuke ordered Baki from her seat next to Gaara, who unlike previous mealtimes, was eating as if he had never eaten before.

Baki goggled at the pair, Sasuke for the order and Gaara fro his appetite, before he shrugged and sat down at the empty seat. He hummed at the first bite and thought to himself, _'her teammates and sensei was right. If she could do laundry she'd be the perfect housewife, hell for this kind of cooking I know quite a few Shinobi that would be willing to learn how to do that!'_

When Gaara had finished his plate, the table was startled when Sasuke had taken it from him, placed more food on it before setting it back down in front of him before she resumed eating her own breakfast. Gaara blinked before he shrugged and started eating his second plate as eagerly as his first plate had been devoured. As Temari finished her plate she was surprised to see Sasuke glance between Temari, her plate and the stove with a raised brow, after a moment of thought the blond fan user shook her head in response to the silent question. She didn't need a second plate, however when the brunette asked the same silent question of Kankuro, she got an enthusiastic nod so she plucked the plate form where the puppet user was offering it up to her and refilled it.

As that was happening Baki stared in bemusement as his three students were being, there was no other word for it that came to his mind, mothered by a thirteen year old slip of a girl, who happened to be the last of her clan. As he finished his plate he idly wondered just what his Kage would make of this, Gaara had never known his mother while Temari and Kankuro had lost her while still young enough to only vaguely remember her. It was altogether possible that the three would adopt the young Uchiha as a surrogate mother as much as the brunette seemed to have adopted the three as her children.

Baki shivered as Kakashi's words from the night before came to his mind, _**"Sasuke's from a family whose Sister Clan is…was known for adopting those who had lost a parent and treating them as their own."**_ the silver haired man had shrugged before he said, _**"one of them had done that with me soon after my mother died, I never really thought twice about calling her 'Mother'."**_   He had glanced at Baki with a sardonic glint in his eye as he uttered a surprising fact, _**"if Sasuke is anything like my adoptive mother, then Sasuke will consider it her given right to A: fuss over Gaara and perhaps his siblings, B: tell their surviving parent, if they have one, off for things that Sasuke considers a detriment to their health or wellbeing and C: teach them techniques meant only for her clan. My adopted mother had taught me moves and techniques that were exclusive, or meant to be, to her clan and their original village."**_

As he ate the last bite of his hash browns he thought to himself, _'be careful Kazekage-Sama, I have the feeling that despite her youth and rank this girl is more powerful than expected. She can at least summon lesser hawks and the Hawks are notoriously picky with their choice of summoners, almost as picky as the Badgers and Snakes.'_ Sasuke had finished her own plate soon after Temari had finished hers and the dark haired girl had taken both plates to the sink. When Gaara had finished off his second plate he had pouted and glanced at her beseechingly, Sasuke had smiled fondly at him before she refilled it again. When Kankuro had done the same as his brother the Uchiha had laughed before she plucked the plate up, knocked his hood off, ruffled his hair and muttered as she filled his plate, "boys are bottomless pits when it comes to food."

Baki had chuckled at hat comment and refused as second plate of food, he had already had breakfast before he came to pick up his students for training. As he handed her his plate, he had asked her curiously, "what are you and your team going to do today?"

As she scrubbed the plates she said idly, "Kaka-Sensei is probably going to drill the three of us into the ground," at Baki's confused look she clarified, "he plans to enter us into the upcoming Chuunin exams and he wants us to do well." She rinsed off the plates as she smiled and said fondly, "he wants to impress Iruka-Sensei with how well he has trained us," she chuckled before she said with dancing eyes, "it's kind of cute really, how Kakashi-Sensei really, really wants to impress Iruka-Sensei. We're the first team he's ever trained, Kakashi-Sensei tested several teams before us and failed them all, they weren't up to his standards you see. Somehow the three of us gained his approval," she paused as she was placing the now clean frying pan in the drying rack, "but since we're the first team he's passed and trained we will be under the most scrutiny. If the council has reason to believe that he's not training us to our full potential, they will attempt to take us away from his and assign us a new Sensei."

Her dark eyes glittered with malice and determination as she growled darkly, "if they try to take ' **our'** Kakashi-Sensei from us then the council will find out just why mine and Naruto's mothers were so feared by Konoha's enemies!" She then plopped the last dish in the drying rack, she ignored the calculating look on Baki's face, her threat to the Konoha civilian council was as much for Suna as for the absent council. He watched as she absently fussed over the three Sabaku siblings, she asked if they all had their weapons, she received started confirmations from Temari and Kankuro before she kissed Gaara on the forehead as she said, "I'll be in the same training ground that I took you to yesterday. I'll see you later, Panda-Chan, Temari, Kankuro," she called out over her shoulder as she left the house.

The Sabaku siblings turned to their sensei and Temari asked curiously, "just who were their mothers, Sensei, and why were they so feared by Konoha's enemies?" Kankuro had strapped his favorite puppet to his back while Gaara slung his sand gourd across his back as their sister asked her question.

Baki sighed silently before he said as they walked out the door, unintentionally lecturing the civilians and Shinobi of Suna that were nearby, "Naruto's mother was a young woman named Kushina Uzumaki." He paused for a moment to smirk before he said, "she was far more commonly known outside of her village as the Crimson Blade of Konoha or as the Red Hot Habanero. Truth be told no one outside of her village even knows why she's called the Red Hot Habanero," he shrugged at the disbelieving looks the three Genin gave him at that.

He huffed a soft laugh before he said, "you know, it's kind of amusing and rather ironic in a way," at the stare he received from Kankuro he explained, "I find it amusing that the only child of Kushina is being taught by the only child of her partner."

The civilians stared at him in confusion and Temari raised an eyebrow at him before she asked with her arms crossed over her chest, "just who was Kushina Uzumaki's partner?" Her brow furrowed before she asked curiously, "does it have anything to do with why the woman who sealed Shukaku into Gaara looked so frightened of Naruto and Hatake-San last night?"

Baki nodded and as they moved through the crowds he said, "yeah, it does. Kushina Uzumaki's partner was none other than Sakumo Hatake, Konoha's legendary White Fang." Quite a few people gaped at him in shock, everyone in Suna were told of the best Shinobi of the world, even the dead ones, and Konoha produced some of the most infamous: the Sannin, the White Fang, the Crimson Blade, the Red Dragon, the White Wolf, the Yellow Flash and the most recent, the Copy-Cat nin. Unknown to the group, the White Wolf was the White Fang's ANBU Codename while the Red Dragon was the ANBU name of the Crimson Blade. The people of Suna had noticed that when the White Fang died, both the Crimson Blade and the Red Dragon lost their partner because the White Wolf vanished completely as if he never existed at all.

He huffed a laugh before he remarked, "as for young Sasuke's mother, I'd say that she was probably Mikoto Uchiha," he glanced at his students before he said, "she was less well known than other Konoha Shinobi but she was well versed in genjutsu. A trait that Sasuke seems to have inherited from her," he paused long enough to smirk wryly before he commented," not to mention she's a summoner of the Hawk contract. Those birds are very picky about who signs their contract and before you can even summon one regularly you have to earn that birds respect." He shook his head at that before he led his three Genin to their usual training ground on the outskirts of the village, both Gaara and Temari often caused large scale damage when they practiced their chosen weapons.

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When Sasuke had slid into the training grounds, she found Sakura and Naruto already there, the blond was sparring with a clone while Sakura was reading a scroll. "Good morning, Sasuke," the pink haired girl called out in greeting to her old crush, the dark haired girl nodded back before she was challenged to a spar by Naruto, Sasuke accepted with a smirk.

When Kakashi strolled into the grounds five minutes after Sasuke arrived, he found Sakura perched on the wall while her teammates were having, to most eyes, a knock down drag out fight but to the team was merely a friendly spar, Sakura was cheering and offering pointers to them both. Kakashi allowed the spar to continue for five more minutes before he whistled sharply, all three Genins ceased what they were doing and stared at him. Sasuke had froze mid punch while Naruto had froze from where he had been ducking under said punch and Sakura froze mid-word. "As delighted as I am that you decided to be productive with your time… I have a training plan for the next week or so," he said as he strolled into the center of the training ground and signaled for them to come to him.

They obeyed and settled in front of him with ease, the Suna nins, who had been watching, gaped at how all three Genins had obeyed Kakashi's order to stop, most of them wouldn't have been able to control their bodies natural urge to continue the motion. The three must have trained extensively on how to control their muscles as even the most skilled Taijutsu specialists wouldn't have been able to stop a blow that they had train their bodies to do instinctively. Actually, they would have an even harder time than most since their bodies natural reaction would be to make the blow even more powerful in response to a perceived threat.

Kakashi unsealed a box and ordered all three of his Genins to removed their leg and arm wraps, they followed the order without even questioning it, well Sasuke and Naruto removed arm wraps while Sakura removed her bracers. Kakashi then painted seals on their wrists and ankles, he then ordered them to activate the seals by pulsing their chakra. They again obeyed his order without questioning it and the seals flashed different colors, Sakura's seals flashed a mint green, Sasuke's were navy blue while Naruto's seals glowed a mixture of sea blue and blood red.

As she traced the faintly glimmering seals Sakura asked, "what do these seals do, Kakashi-Sensei," as she asked she had glanced up at him with curiosity etched on her face. At her question the Suna nins goggled at the four in shock, they had assumed that the Genins had known what he was putting on them, no one in Suna would allow anyone, no matter how much they trusted them, to place a seal on them without knowing what it did.

Kakashi had laughed at her question before he said, "they act much like weights do only they work via gravity," he picked up her wrist and pointed at the series of circles that wrapped around it now that the seal was activated. "Put a bit of Chakra into this part of the seal," he ordered as he pointed at one of the circles, "you won't need much," he added as she obeyed him. She stared at her wrist in shock as the circle filled in with the same mint green color as the rest of the seal, as she stared at it he said, "with every circle filled your body experiences your body weighing as if it was under a gravity that is only one times higher than ours. In other words if you only have one circle filled then you will only experience life as if you weighed twice as much, two makes you three times as heavy, so on and so forth." When she goggled at him in shock he held up his hands defensively as he said, "hey, don't look at me I didn't invent the seal, his mother did," he had pointed at Naruto at that comment.

Sakura flexed her arm before she rolled her shoulder and rotated her wrist, she then filled the same circles on her other wrist and both ankles before she went through the motions of a Kata. To the eyes of the watchers she was clearly struggling to get her body to respond as quickly as it normally did. Her teammates quickly followed suit before they had replaced their arm and leg wraps, which incidentally covered the glowing seals.

Kakashi had clapped his hands and said cheerfully, "your training for the next week is to get used to the increased gravity placed upon your bodies by the seals. Once you're used to this amount of gravity and have gotten back to your usual speed I want you to increase the gravity again by having two circles filled, then when you're used to that level, yet another," he tapped Sakura's still bared wrist as he said, "as you can see the maximum circles you have are fifteen which means you will weigh sixteen times as much as normal. Don't," he stressed as he stared at them with a stern glare in his eyes, "make the jump to the next gravity level unless you're completely used to the one before it. To go back to regular gravity, just pull back you're chakra from the seal, but do that slowly or your body won't realize how fast you're moving."

He then strolled over to Sakura's bracers, picked them up before he tossed them at her, she caught them and put them on again. He then glanced at Naruto and Sasuke before he said with a smile, hidden by his mask, "the best way to get used to increased gravity is to be moving and getting your muscles used to the strain. You," he pointed at Sasuke, "used to weigh ninety-three pounds but under the seals increased gravity you're now one hundred and eighty-one pounds. While Naruto is now one hundred and seventy-eight pounds and Sakura's body now thinks she weighs one hundred and fifty-six pounds. If I were to have my seals activated then my body would perceive that it weighs two hundred and ninety-eight pounds instead of one hundred and forty-nine pounds that it actually is."

As Sasuke and Naruto resumed their sparring session, Sakura asked, "how high did you go when you wore the seals, Sensei," as she asked him that she was running up and down the wall.

Kakashi leaned against a stone pillar and pulled out his book as he answered her lightly, "all the way to level eight of it," his visible eye danced with amusement, "Kushina-Okasan was most through." He flipped a page as he commented thoughtlessly, "Minato-Sensei, on the other hand, was almost to level fifteen by his death." He tapped his chin thoughtfully before he nodded as he said, "yes, he was at level thirteen the last time I saw the seal. Kushina-Okasan had joked that he was trying to be as fast as he was using the Flying Thunder God Technique without actually using it." He shrugged as he muttered, "looks like I'll never find out if she was right or wrong about that…"

Sasuke caught the glint in Naruto's eyes that usually signaled trouble when their sensei said that, she bit back a groan, it seemed that Naruto was going to try to reach the fifteenth level of the seal. Then again, Naruto would have the best chance since he healed much faster than Sakura or Sasuke did and he could take more damage than they could.

Two hours later, Gaara and his siblings along with Baki landed on the wall surrounding Team sevens training ground, the four found Sakura using the wooden training posts as punching bags. She moved as if to hit one on the right side but used a reverse kick on one of left hand ones at the last minute, her two teammates were sparring near her but staying clear out of her way.

The main reason that Kakashi chosen this particular training ground was due to the fact that the Kazekage had a spectacular view of it from this office. Kakashi glanced up from his book and said cheerfully, "good afternoon, Baki-San. How did your teams training go this fine morning?"

Naruto was left floundering when Sasuke had vanished from their spar, he looked around and spotted her fussing over the sand siblings, he exchanged amused glances with Sakura at that. Once the dark haired teen had been assured that the three were fine she had ruffled Gaara's hair and went back to her spar. All three of the siblings blinked at that, no one had since their mother had died, at least for Temari and Kankuro, dropped everything they were doing just to fuss over them.

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Akasuka watched as team seven sparred and practiced, he noticed that the three Genin's had an instinctive knowledge as to where their teammates would be in the fight. Sometimes a blow would miss only by millimeters instead of inches, he then saw his children and their Sensei land on the wall of the training ground. He raised his eyebrows in shock when Sasuke stopped in the middle of her spar to fuss over his children before she returned to her spar, seemingly assured that the three were fine. He then remembered Baki's report about how Gaara had already become attached to Sasuke as well as his report on Hatake's comment, he sighed as he pulled out the letter he had received from a ghost, who had lectured him on the treatment of his children.

He leaned back and contemplated Suna's tentative alliance with Sound, he then leaned forward and rubbed his face before he put away the letter and with a determined set to his jaw he began penning a letter to the Hokage. It was about improvements to make for the security of the Chuunin exams, but unlike what he would have done if anyone but team seven had delivered the proposed plan it wasn't to make the security weaker but better. Once that letter was finished he wrote another to the Kage of Sound, this one was terminating their alliance, the reason he gave was that he had discovered that the child of a family ally had take refuge in Konoha and thus he wouldn't attack the village. After both letters had been written he decided to write files on the three Genin and made notes on all three, he left a note on it that ordered his secretary to make copies of all three files to be distributed to the Shinobi of Suna.

After several long moments of thought, Akasuka decided to go to Konoha a month early for the Chuunin exams along with his three children and Baki so he could speak to the Hokage about the country of Sound as well as about an agreement on mission so that Suna wouldn't lose its revenue. He could only hope that the Hokage would be generous enough to come to a favorable agreement since Konoha was very prosperous while Suna and it's people had to eke out a living from the desert. Suna's people were a very hardy bunch, but then they had to be just to be able to survive where they called home.

He once again glanced out of the window at the training ground, he blinked when he saw the 'last' Uchiha leading Gaara through a series of hand signs. After five tries of the move, Gaara had managed to breath out a fireball, Naruto had yelped and dove out of the way of the ball, which slammed harmlessly against the stone wall surrounding the training ground.

The two blonds glanced at each other before they rolled their eyes and muttered in unison, "darn pyromaniacs…" Naruto then went back to showing Temari a wind jutsu that she could use in conjunction with her fan.

When Gaara had commented that he had yet to meet anyone that was willing to spar with him, Sasuke had smirked before she said idly, "I know someone who would take your ultimate sand defense as a challenge. When you come to Konoha for the exam I'll introduce you two to each other," she rubbed the back of her head as she said with a smile, "just to warn you, he's kind of touchy feely and if you're really unlucky, he'll declare you as his eternal rival." She snorted completely missing her Sensei's boggled expression as she did, before she said as she ruffled Gaara's red hair, "which will basically mean that he's your best friend for life who will always challenge you to sparring matches even when you least expect it."

Everyone except Kakashi and Sasuke blinked at that bizarre declaration, "this person you're speaking about wouldn't happen to be a fellow Genin whose teacher's name is Gai Might, would it, Sasuke-Chan," asked the silver haired nin lightly.

Sasuke glanced over at her sensei and frowned in confusion as she said slowly, "he is actually, his name is Lee Rock," she smirked before she said smugly, "he's one hell of a fighter. He's actually showed me a few moves in exchange for letting him sign a summoning contract of his choice, personally I think his choice suits him…"

Kakashi glanced up at her curiously before he asked her, "really, which one did he choose," he had turned a page of his book after he asked her that.

His head shot up when Sasuke answered with a wry smile and lilt to her voice, "believe it or not, he chose the Kangaroo contract," all three of Sasuke's teammates goggled at her in shock. The Kangaroo's could be very picky when it came to their summoners, at max there were only five people who had ever signed the contract, so for Lee to have chosen them and them accept him was a bit of a miracle.

She held up her hand an began ticking off the points that made the Kangaroo's suit Lee as she named them, "Kangaroos can be fast when they want to be, they're very strong despite their docile natures and they are very affectionate within their mobs. They are also extremely enthusiastic about what they consider fun, which Lee most certainly is, he's enthusiastic about training and even gets up early everyday just to go train. Like I said, the Kangaroos are remarkably well suited to Lee in a weird sort of way," Sasuke then began showing Gaara how to perform another fire jutsu.

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The next four days went much along the same lines as the second day that team Seven was in Suna, Sasuke made breakfast for the sand siblings before heading for training with her team. After about two hours or so of team Seven training, the siblings would usually join them and they would train together, the Konoha Genin's were given odd stares from the Suna people for this. Three days after arriving in Suna, the Kazekage had handed over the letter he had written the Hokage to Team Seven. Kakashi had decided that they would leave in two days after he received the letter, they would be leaving at dusk since it would be far cooler to travel at night than during the day.

After training was over on the fourth day, Sasuke had made her team and the sand siblings a light lunch before she broached the subject of summoning contracts again, the last time being when she spoke about a friend of hers. Temari had revealed that she had signed the weasel contract and even had a favored summon, however both Gaara and Kankuro didn't have one. At that information Sasuke had unsealed a scroll and placed it's contents onto the table, she then gestured at the pile of scrolls and said, "choose one and sign it."

Kankuro went through the scrolls, each one bore a wax seal holding it closed with an animal etched into the wax, he found a scroll with a cat on it that had two tails and Kanji for each of the elements around the cat. He held it up and asked Sasuke curiously, "what animal is this scroll for?"

Sasuke took the scroll from him and looked it over before she said as she handed it back to him, "that is the contract for the elemental cats. All elemental cats have two tails when in their larger form, their first form is usually the size of a common housecat. The second form can range from the size of a large dog to a small horse, it all depends upon their age."

"And this one, I've never seen any animal like this before," he asked as he held up another scroll.

She peered up at it before she smirked and said cheerfully, "that is the contract for the Kangaroos, otherwise known as the contract that Lee Rock signed in exchange for teaching me a few Taijutsu moves."

Kankuro set down the Kangaroo contract but held onto the cat contract since his teacher Baki had signed the contract for the lions. After he went through the pile of scrolls he ended up signing the elemental cat contract while Gaara had chosen the falcon contract. Before either boy summoned for the first time, Sasuke had retrieved a bowl of cream and a bowl of fish for Kankuro before she got a bowl of chopped meat for Gaara. When she had been asked why she had done that by Temari, she had replied, "both the flacons and the Nekomata like a person better if they are willing to look after their young." The dark eyed girl had shrugged before she said, "and that's what's most likely to answer their first summons. Adults rarely ever answer first the summon unless someone is passing on a contract to another and the animals have already agreed to come to the persons call." She had shrugged again before she said wryly, "even I had a fledgling show up first, of course, little Duo was cute so I had no problem with that. It's why Solo likes me so much, Duo is his younger sibling so he likes people Duo likes since Duo's not very trusting of strangers."

Kankuro attempted to summon first, with a puff of smoke a cream colored kitten with black markings on the tips of its ears and on it's paws appeared in front of him. The kitten mewed up at Kankuro, who promptly picked the kitten up and scratched it behind the ears, that action of course caused the kitten to purr loudly. After a moment the puppet user set it back down, this time in front of the bowl of cream and it's purr got even louder as it lapped at the cream. While it was drinking Sasuke instructed him to summon another Nekomata, he did and a large cat appeared this time, it glanced around and spotted the kitten eagerly drinking up the cream. It heaved a sigh of relief before it turned to Kankuro and said, "hello, my name is Asher," he nodded toward the kitten as he said, "and that is my daughter, Amita. Thank you for caring for her when she appeared," he bowed his head respectfully as he spoke.

Kankuro snorted before he said as he pointed at the hood of his outfit, which Naruto found absolutely hilarious, "no problem man, I like cats in case you didn't notice." He then held out his hand, Asher sniffed it before he placed his paw in the hand and Kankuro shook the paw as he said, "the name's Kankuro and it's nice to meet you, Asher."

As Kankuro was introducing himself, Gaara had summoned a fledgling falcon that squawked in shock, both from appearing in a new place and at boy in front of it as well as the scent of hawks coming from the girl next to the boy. The smell of hawks was explained by the hawk sitting on the girls shoulder, Kaze hopped down and said cheerfully, "hello, little one. My name's Kaze," he pointed at Gaara with his left wing as he said, "that boy there is Gaara. My summoner has adopted him as her fledgling," he then pointed at Sasuke and said, "she's my summoner, Sasuke Uchiha," he then began to groom himself idly as he commented, "I know Gaara smells kind of funny but he's a nice kid, you'll find that out for yourself if you give him the chance."

When Gaara had given the hawk a puzzled look at his comment about Gaara's smell, Sasuke leaned over and said quietly, "they can smell Shukaku on you."

Kaze had paused in his self-preening before he asked the fledgling, "are you hungry," when it nodded he perked up and pointed at Gaara as he said, "he's got some meat for you." The fledgling eyed Gaara warily before it came up to him slowly, the red head set the bowl down in front of it and it tentatively picked up a piece of meat. In only a few moments the chunk was gone and the fledgling was going for another, it eyed Gaara warily in between bites. After a while, the fledgling's stomach was bulging and it had hopped into Gaara's lap and fell asleep, the red head brushed his fingers lightly over the soft feathers covering it's head.

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The next evening after the sand siblings had signed the contracts, Team Seven stood on the outskirts of Sunagakure, Sasuke had hugged all three of the siblings, from the oldest until the youngest. As she hugged Gaara she said, "take care of yourselves," she then ruffled Gaara's hair as she chirped, "I'll see you at the Chuunin exams." She then gave the three and Baki a stern stare as she said, "and don't even think that you'll be staying in a hotel. You're staying with me and that's final, so no arguments, got it," she had then raised an eyebrow at them, crossed her arms over her chest as she tapped her right foot while waiting fort their answer to her question.

All four people nodded vigorously at the order, for that's exactly what it was, she had taken to bossing around all of the Sabaku family as if she was the head of the family and for some reason Baki was part of the family in her opinion. The Kazekage's secretary had almost fainted from shock when Sasuke had stormed into his office and ordered the Kazekage to be there for dinner or she'd drag him out of his office if she had to. To everyone's surprise, Akasuka had followed her order to the letter and had dinner with his children, their teacher and all of team seven. Naruto and Sasuke had entertained them all by recounting the blonds various pranks upon Konoha. Kakashi had been surprised to find out that Naruto hadn't actually been behind some of the revenge pranks that had been played. Naruto had refused to name the perpetrators of the pranks but spoke fondly of them.

Once she had received their nods of agreement she had smiled at them before she summoned four large hawks, all four were large enough to ride and Team Seven mounted them easily. Sasuke winked at Gaara and called down to him, "get the falcons to like you enough and you can do the same, Panda-Chan! It sure saves time when you're traveling without any civilians," she then waved goodbye and the hawks took off with a great gust of wind.

Only his siblings, his father and his teacher were close enough to hear as Gaara had murmured, "be safe, Mother and I will see you at the exams. I promise," as he had spoken he stared after the faint specks that were the hawks and their riders until they vanished from sight.

When they were out of sight, the young Jinchuuriki turned and headed toward their house to go to sleep, Gaara had moved all of his possessions to the former guest room. Sasuke had added a small nest for the fledgling that occasionally popped in for a visit, her parents knew that if she vanished from the nest than they would likely find her with Gaara. Meanwhile Kankuro's room had gained a cat bed and scratching post for his occasional Nekomata visitor, his summons had turned out to be very fond of the puppet user and readily answered when he called, unlike most felines.

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Once they had crossed over the border between the land of Rivers and the land of Fire, Sasuke had the hawks land so Team Seven could make camp. If they traveled most of the next day, the team would reach Konoha at dusk and Naruto wanted to look over the scrolls sent to him by his mothers information network.

Once they were all inside with a few of Naruto's clones as sentries, the four pulled out the scrolls and laid them out on the table. After several minutes of combing through the reports the three Genins heard Kakashi curse softly before he muttered, "this isn't good news if it's true…"

Sakura frowned slightly, she ignored the cursing as she'd heard worse from her father when he hurt himself while attempting to repair something at home. She tilted her head to the side and asked curiously, "what's not good news if it's true? Does it have anything to do with Konoha," she asked worriedly.

He shook his head as he said while staring at the report grimly, "no, it's got nothing to do with Konoha unless a team is sent on a mission to the land of Waves. According to this," he held up the report to signal that it was what he was talking about, "a business man by the name of Gato has gain a chokehold on the country and has hire some missing nins from Mist as enforcers. A bridge builder by the name of Tazuna is building a bridge to connect the land of Waves to the mainland, which could weaken Gato's hold on the country."

He then tapped the report as he said with a frown, he had taken to not wearing his masks around his kids so the frown was visible, "I don't think the Hokage will allow Gato to stop the bridge from being built since the bridge would allow the land of Fire to trade with the land of Wave more easily than usual. I'm just worried about which missing nin he hired from Mist all of that Ashe wrote was that it was an S-class missing nin and said Shinobi's apprentice/partner."

He shook his head as he rolled up the report then he said, "the Hokage has to read this," he stopped for a moment before he uttered, unknown to the four at the time, a statement that Naruto would use to tease the copy cat nin, "I really wish that it's the Devil of the Mist and not the Shark…" With that said he gathered all the reports that the team had agreed to hand over to the Hokage immediately for the Hokage to go over as soon as possible, after that was done the four went to bed.

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The next evening at dusk, Izumo and Kotetsu were standing guard at the gates waiting for any Shinobi or civilians to check in, Team Seven wasn't due to report back for another week. The Hokage had received a message from Sunagakure about the teams arrival only two days ago, since it took three days for the messenger to reach Konoha they knew that the team shouldn't be back for another week or more. None of the other Genin teams out on missions were due to report back in either so that left Chuunin's and Jounins that might check in this late.

Thus it was with great surprise that four shapes appeared on the horizon, Izumo sent a message to the Hokage and Ibiki about the forms. The Head of the T and I department arrived soon after the message had been sent, the Hokage showed up moments later along with five ANBU and Iruka Umino. Once the shapes got closer they could tell that the four were birds, the largest had a wingspan of around forty feet while the smallest had a wingspan of about twenty-three feet.

The four hawks dove and landed in front of the gates, to the watchers shock four people dismounted the birds and a dark haired boy bid the four farewell after he had thanked them for the lift. All of the birds nodded farewell to Sasuke before they took off, when Team Seven noticed the ten people standing behind them, all four raised an eyebrow and asked in unison, "something we can help you all with?"

After he scowled at them, Iruka glomped the blond boy as he said, "I'm glad you're home, Naruto," he paused and glanced at Sasuke and Sakura as he said cheerfully, "I'm happy to see the two of you as well."

Kakashi pouted before he whined, "aren't you glad that I returned safe and sound, Iruka-Sensei?"

The three Genins resisted laughing at the put upon expression on the silver haired mans face when Iruka asked, "why would you return any differently, after all, you're a Jounin, they're only Genins. Ergo, you can handle yourself just fine so I'm more apt to worry about them than you."

Kakashi was torn between being proud that Iruka had noticed that he was powerful enough to look after himself and being sad that Iruka didn't bother to worry about his safety. He grumbled to himself under his breath as he strolled toward the gates, seemingly ignoring the Chuunin's retort, "I know that I'm a perfectly capable Jounin, but is it too much to ask that someone be worried about my health and safety while I'm on missions…"

The three Genins overheard him and shared bemused glances before Naruto mouthed, ' _he's really got it bad for Iruka-Sensei, doesn't he?_ ' The other two nodded in a rather resigned fashion before they sighed and muttered as one, "we've got to do something about that. I'm getting sick of the unresolved tension, the flirting, the sneaky glances and let us not forget, the longing stares and sighs!"

Naruto dropped back to between Sasuke and Sakura before he said, "lets make a plan, we need to get those two together before they drive someone to commit murder. Namely us! Well," he glanced between them before he asked, "are you two with me or not?"

The pair glanced at each other then toward the bickering Chuunin and Jounin before they turned back to Naruto as they chorused, "we're with you, Snake!"

Naruto nodded decisively before he said, "alright then, we'll convene at the Hawks nest at nine o'clock AM sharp, Badger." He then stared at Sasuke before he said blandly, "you had better be awake, Hawk, or I'll have Etsuyo wake you up…" He had trailed off in a vaguely threatening manner as the group of Seven approached the Hokage tower.

Two hours later, Ibiki had left while shaking his head over Team Seven's antics while Iruka gaped at the three Genins, he was still in shock over how they had taken down a total of twenty-nin missing nins. Not to mention Kakashi's casual mention of Shukaku's resealing and Sasuke's apparent adoption of the entire Sabaku clan as his to mother over, the tanned Chuunin had smacked the pale Jounin upside the head when he commented, "Sasuke will make a terrific mother one day."

Both the smack and Kakashi's pout at it was somewhat reflexive, Iruka had still not figured out just what it meant that Kakashi allowed him to hit him without hitting the Chuunin back. Nor what it meant by the fact that he could move into Kakashi's blind spot and the silver haired Jounin didn't even flinch. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he watched the pair and compared the scarecrows reactions to things Iruka did to what he had punished others for doing. The blond grinned impishly as an idea on how to solve the unresolved sexual tension between Konoha's silver scarecrow and scarred dolphin came to him, even better the entire village could be a witness to how different Kakashi treated Iruka compared to even a good friend. Besides, not even Gai or Asuma were allowed to be in Kakashi's blind spot without him twitching or be allowed to disciple the Jounin even when he did something wrong.

Although Iruka did get away with more than most when it came to the Jounins, Kakashi let Iruka slide with far more than the other Jounins did and for some strange reason the scarred Chuunin didn't realize it. Of course, Kakashi also got away with stuff that other Shinobi no matter their rank got yelled at for, he got away with sending in his summons with his reports. Another Jounin tried that after he saw Kakashi get away with doing it and promptly got a dressing down by a very angry Iruka, what most found funny about that particular memory was the fact that Pakkun appeared in the middle of Iruka's rant to hand him a report from Kakashi. Iruka had taken the report from the pug and stopped his rant long enough to say, "thank you Pakkun, and tell your master to try to hand it in person next time." The other Jounin had goggled at the Chuunin's calm manner and mild chastisement of the dog, his own summons had gotten the dressing down of a lifetime and a strict order from Iruka that unless their master was on his death bed they were not to come near the mission desk to hand in a report.

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The next morning, as Sasuke prepared rooms for Temari, Kankuro, Gaara, Baki and Akasuka, Naruto had laid out his plot to get Iruka to realize that Kakashi was in love with him and for their Sensei to realize that Iruka was in love with him. Sasuke and Sakura had agreed that it was a rather ingenious plot as well as the fact that they could begin it right away, the three had agreed to let the blond handle Iruka and to let Sasuke handle Kakashi. Sakura was put in charge of finding Jounin and Chuunins, all male, willing to help in the plot, Sakura used a mixture of blackmail, bribery and challenge to do this. Asuma had agreed to help for the laugh, Gai had agreed because in his own words, " _ **my rival deserves his love for the Springtime of Youth!**_ "

A few others agreed to help out due to her knowing something that they didn't want Ino to know about and spread around, she was also in charge of recording the interactions of the unsuspecting pair, while the people she had roped into helping merely did what the two did in each others prescence. Only the substitutes got a much different reaction form the man involved, the three had even taped a control video of the two men together to showcase the differences in the reactions to the exact same actions with only the person involved being different.

Three days later, a package arrived on Iruka's apartment and the Chuunin raised an eyebrow at it before he brought it inside and opened it to find a tape inside of it, he shrugged and watched the tape. He stared with puzzlement etched onto his face at the videos of Kakashi reacting to various things done by different people, several of the Jounins friends included. His eyes bugged out and he gaped when he watched the part where it was him performing the same things that so clearly bothered the Jounin when preformed even by his closest of friends. Only the Jounins reaction was much different to his actions, instead of becoming angry or annoyed it was brushed off with a fond smile or a laugh. Other actions that got a shrug and a dismissal from the Jounin when preformed by other people got a hurt look and a pout if Iruka was the one performing said action.

Unknown to the Chuunin, the silver haired man was watching an exact copy of the video and was coming to the same rather stunning, to the pair at least but the deduction wasn't the slightest bit surprising to their fellow Shinobi, conclusion. ' _Kakashi/Iruka likes me,'_ was the shared thought that flashed through the pairs minds. At the end of the video was a message, it read: _'Please, for the love of Kami! Put him and us out of our misery! We're getting sick of watching the two of you dancing around each other!'_

Kakashi summoned Pakkun and asked him to have Iruka meet him at one of the parks between Iruka's apartment and Kakashi's house, if Iruka agreed to it the silver haired Jounin would lead him to his sanctuary.

Three hours after the end of the tape saw the pair in Kakashi's living room, the pair were in the middle of a very through investigation of each others mouths. Iruka had been shocked when Kakashi had nonchalantly dropped his mask that so many had tried to peek under, the silver haired man had murmured just before he kissed the Chuunin for the first time, "it would be difficult to kiss you with it on, you know."

Iruka's brain had fuzzily agreed that the kiss was much better with the mask off since it enabled the Jounin to map Iruka's mouth with his tongue. Although a few minutes later his brain caused him to murmur without thinking it through, "your kisses should be declared an illegal possession…" When Kakashi had asked him why he thought that Iruka had replied breathily, "because they're intoxicating to me…"

Kakashi had laughed huskily in the tanned man's ear before he had murmured, "it's a good thing I plan to use them only on you, right, Iruka-Kun," after he had said that he had nipped the younger man's earlobe lightly. Iruka had murmured a wordless agreement to the Jounins statement and the older man lifted him so the Chuunin was straddling his hips and rocked upward, that action had caused their groins to grind together. A choked whimper had escaped the scarred man at the action and Iruka's hands had clamped down onto Kakashi's bared shoulders. The pre-Genin teacher had divested the Jounin of his jacket and shirt sometime after their third kiss, not that Kakashi had fought the action too hard, the silver haired man's only objection to the action was parting the kiss long enough to get rid of his shirt.

Kakashi had done the same to Iruka two kisses after he had lost his upper garments and he was currently tracing the muscles of the Chuunin's back, his dark eye flashed angrily when he felt the scar caused by Mizuki's giant shuriken. His left eye remained closed despite being uncovered, Kakashi had removed his forehead protector after the fourth kiss between the pair, Iruka had followed the example only seconds later. After several moments of pleasant grinding, the pale man had clamped his hands on Iruka's hips to still them and opened both eyes to stare up at him as he growled, "now is the time to tell me to stop, my beloved Dolphin." His dark eye glittered with hunger as his Sharingan spun as he said darkly, "because when a Hatake claims a mate, it's for life, I won't let you go once I have claimed you as mine!"

Iruka stared down into the mismatched eyes of the older Shinobi and saw how serious the Jounin was about this, and for a single moment he thought about denying the Jounin's claim and leaving. But with one look into the Jounin's eyes he knew that this was the only time that it would be offered, if he denied the claim and changed his mind later the Jounin would refuse to claim him. So Iruka leaned down and whispered in the hound summoners ear before he leaned down further and nipped the pale haired mans jugular, "claim me if you want because I fully plan to claim you, my scarecrow!"

Kakashi growled deeply, much like his summons, at the combination of the words and the bite before he scooped up the younger man, he used the Shunshin to appear in his bedroom right by his bed. He placed the Chuunin down before he activated the jutsu's guarding his home, he had made many improvements since the letters from Obito and the others, he fully planned to have a trace of his chakra in Iruka long before morning so he knew that the Chuunin would be perfectly safe in his home. By the time he was done with the other man, everyone he met would know that Iruka was off the market for good if the Copy-Cat nin of Konoha had anything to say about it and Kakashi fully planned to be able to say a lot about it.


	9. Chapter Eight: Of Waves, Devils and Foolish Businessmen!

**:blushes violently: Well, I can't believe I'm going to say this but there is a mature scene in this fic, so if you don't want to read it you don't have to.**

**:puts hands over face: I can't believe I wrote that but once it was written I kept it... So on with the Fic!**

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**Chapter Eight:** _Of Waves, Devils and Foolish Businessmen!_

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A week after arriving back in Konoha from their escort mission, Team Seven reported to the Hokage for a mission , it seemed that Tazuna had requested an escort back to Wave from Konoha. The Hokage had informed the bridge builder that he was well aware that the danger Tazuna was in as well as that danger being well above the level of a C-Rank mission, in fact it was probably A-Ranked. The Hokage then told him that Konoha was willing to take the mission at C-Ranked pay provided that Wave gave Konoha a discount on any products that they bought from Wave. Tazuna swiftly agreed to the terms provided that Konoha ensured that the bridge was built and that Gato didn't interfere in Waves commerce again, the Hokage agreed to Tazuna's terms.

As Team Seven and Team Ten walked in, Tazuna raised an eyebrow at that and as ked indignantly, "you're going to send a bunch of kids to guard me and the bridge?"

At that comment Sasuke's eyes flashed red while Sakura and Naruto bared their teeth before Sakura cracked her knuckles, "I suggest that you don't insult **my** kids," Kakashi warned Tazuna. He then gave him an eye-smile as he said, "after all, they have been on an escort mission that had been attack by missing nins before and they handled themselves just fine. Besides," he ruffled Sasuke's hair as he said cheerfully, "how many Genin's can claim to be able to summon," at that comment all three of his kids smirked at the bridge builder.

Kurenai raised an eyebrow as she said, "not only has Sasuke awakened his Sharingan but all three of your Genins have signed summoning contracts," she crossed her arms over her chest as she stared at him expectantly as if waiting for an explanation.

Kakashi shrugged before he said, "Sasuke's family holds several summoning contracts, he signed one while he also let Sakura sign another. As for Naruto's summons, apparently his mother told her favorite summon to bring her son the contract to sign when they felt him ready."

At that statement Kurenai froze in shock, Kushina had many usual summons but two or three favorites, one of which was Manda. After a moment she asked casually, "which favorite was the one she asked to do that," as she asked the silver haired Jounin that she failed to notice Naruto playing with a two foot snake. It was draped around the blonds neck, Sakura rolled her eyes since Naruto had the odd habit of hissing at the snakes as if he was talking to them. Although, it sometimes seemed as if the snakes could indeed understand what he was hissing since they would often hiss back at him.

"The one she loved bringing out in battle," Kakashi replied lazily as he glanced up at Sasuke, the black haired teen was perched on the window sill, occasionally the Uchiha would glance down at the street before looking back at the horizon toward Suna. He guessed that the boy was worried about Gaara, Kankuro and Temari since he was playing with the small pendant around his neck, the three siblings had given him the small necklace, it had a cat, a falcon and a weasel on it. Each animal represented the respective summoner of that breed, Sasuke had rapidly developed a habit of playing with it.

At that statement Kurenai groaned softly as she rubbed her right temple as she realized that if the serpents were even half as fond of Naruto as they were his mother then Konoha was in for a headache. Although Kushina never used the larger snakes in spars she hadn't been above using them in pranks, hell the snakes were more fond of her then they were of Orochimaru. So much so that Manda would side with Kushina even if he had been summoned by the Hebi Sannin, a fact that grated on the gold eyed man severely. No one had known just why the snakes were so fond of her, Orochimaru had been stunned when the snake that held the contract for the serpents had given it to her to sign without a comment and the red haired woman had refused to explain herself to anyone about it.

Only a few people could explain whey the serpents were so fond of Kushina and they had kept their mouths shut about it, of the three who knew her: one was dead, another was presumed dead and the third was wandering around aimlessly. The red eyed woman shook herself out of her daze and said, "right, well how do you want to handle this mission Kakashi-San," as she spoke she glanced at him questioningly.

Kakashi hummed softly before he looked over his team before he turned to Sasuke and asked, "boy or girl, Sasuke-Chan," at his question everyone except Team Seven goggled at him.

The hawk summoner blinked before he said, "boy this time I think," he shrugged as he stepped down from the window sill and said, "after all, it's unlikely that we'll run into anyone who will be competing in the Chuunin exams in Wave." After he said that Sasuke had leveled a stare at his sensei before he commented, "just in case we aren't in the village when the time comes to enroll in the exam, don't you think you should tell the Hokage about your decision, Kakashi-Sensei?"

The Hokage blinked and puffed on his pipe as he asked, "might I inquire as to what your student is talking about, Hatake?"

Kakashi looked up from where he'd been making notes in the margins of one of his books at the Hokage's question, "Sasuke just want's me to inform you that I plan to enter my team into the Chuunin exams. So could you put my team down as entrants in the exam, we might be unable to be back in time to enroll into the exam," he gave his superior an eye-smile at that.

The Hokage hummed before he said, "alright, if you're sure they can handle it," Kakashi nodded so the Hokage made a notation in Team Seven's file. As he did he paused to glance up at Kurenai as he asked, "and you Yuhi, are you also going to enter your team into the exams?"

Kurenai frowned as she thought it over, her team had excelled in leaps and bounds as she had trained them, for some reason Hinata didn't use the Gentle Fist style of fighting unless one of her family might be watching. Instead she used a form similar to the style that Orochimaru used, but her style seemed smoother for some reason that Kurenai couldn't explain. "Go ahead and enter them, they'll have the final choice to show up or not if they think that they aren't ready for it," she finally answered.

"When are we scheduled to leave, Hokage-Sama," asked Kakashi as he placed his book away in it's usual pocket.

The Hokage wrote down in the file on the Chuunin Exams, adding both team Seven and Ten to the roster of entrants. "Tomorrow morning, you'll have all day today to prepare for the mission and to say your goodbyes," the Hokage said absently.

The two teams nodded in understanding, Team Ten left the room shortly after that, Kurenai was probably off to tell Asuma about her mission while her three students were probably off to tell their families about the same thing. Team Seven stayed behind, Sasuke had cleared his throat before he said, "Hokage-Sama, there is a team coming from Suna that will be entering in the exam. I've already extended an invitation for the team, their Sensei and Father to stay with me during the duration of their stay in Konoha." At that the Hokage raised an eyebrow at the team, "if they arrive before I return from this mission make sure that everyone knows that I've invited them to stay and that they aren't trespassing," Sasuke ended before he took advantage of the open window to leave the tower without dealing with the crowds below. His two teammates swiftly followed his example, Sakura raced off along the rooftops to inform her parents that she was leaving for another outside mission. While she was doing that, Naruto was off to tell Dobby to restock the tent for another long trip. Sasuke, on the other hand, was off to tinker with his house's security to make sure that none of the group coming to visit him would be hurt by accident.

The Hokage glanced at Kakashi, who shrugged before he said cheekily, "Sasuke all but adopted three siblings who are all on the same team. Their father is a widower who buried himself in his work and ignored the fact that he had kids, Sasuke decided that he was going to be the one to kick the man out of his funk. It seems to have worked, since by the time we left Suna the man was eating with his family again," the silver haired Jounin had skillfully left out the fact that the man and three kids was the Kazekage and his family.

The Hokage nodded and said around his pipe, "I'll let Izumo and Kotetsu know that if a team from Suna with the teacher by the name of…" He trailed off as he realized that neither Kakashi nor Sasuke had mentioned the teachers name.

"Baki, sir," Kakashi said cheerfully.

"Baki, at the gate to have them escorted to the Uchiha compound, more specifically the main house," the Hokage finished before he stared at Kakashi then he barked, "you're dismissed, Hatake!"

"Yes, Hokage-Sama," the copy cat nin singsong to his superior before he left the tower via the window and headed toward his house to pack for the trip. Iruka, thankfully, only had to teach at the academy today and had the next two days off, Kakashi had finished his packing and restocking within an hour of arriving home so all he had to do was grab it and go. He had already adjusted the security of his house to allow Iruka free access to it, a fact that had surprised Iruka when he found out, after all Kakashi was well known for guarding his privacy. Not even Gai was allowed unrestricted access to the silver haired man's house, his apartment yes, his house no.

Of course, no one except Kakashi's team, Iruka and the Hokage were aware that Kakashi had a house besides the Hatake compound, which had been empty since Sakumo's suicide. Everyone who knew that Kakashi's father died in that house understood just why it had stood empty with Kakashi only using the grounds for training on occasion. When Iruka had asked about why he had started wearing his mask if he didn't really care if anyone saw what he looked like, the Chuunin had been startled to find out that Kakashi resembled his father greatly. So much so that Kakashi had sometimes been mistaken as his father, "the only ones who never really did as I grew up were Minato-Sensei and Kushina-Okasan," Kakashi had murmured idly.

The silver haired man chuckled as Iruka's reactions to his nickname for Kushina flooded back to his mind, "you're telling me that you used to call Naruto's mother, your mother!" Iruka had shot up from where he'd been resting beside Kakashi and rested on his right elbow to glance down at the lazing man in shock, "can I ask why you called her that or is that too private," he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kakashi had chuckled again before he said with a smile, "I called her mother simply because she acted as if she was, she taught me as if I was her flesh and blood." Kakashi had laughed before he said with a sardonic smile, "hell, she even said as much when the council tried to force me to have children at the age of twelve. She stood in front of them with her arms crossed, her eyes flashing and her hair moving like it did when she was really angry and she had shouted at them, _**'you think you can force MY son to be your prize stud for your stable of broodmares? Think again, you even try that and I swear you'll regret it until your soul ceases to exist because I will hunt you down even in death if you try!'**_ After that the council never bothered me again," the lazy man had shrugged after he said that and watched as his lover gaped down at him.

"I should think not! No one pissed off Kushina-San if they could help it, she was ruthless to those who made her angry," Iruka exclaimed as he stared down at Kakashi.

The Jounin smiled in fond remembrance as he said, "yeah, she certainly was ruthless about that wasn't she…"

Kakashi was jolted out of his memories by a voice nearby asking, "are you coming out of your world anytime soon or am I going to have to throw a rope in after you," he glanced over to see a smiling Iruka staring at him fondly.

An answering smile flashed across Kakashi's face as he pulled his mask down before he said, "for you, I'll come out of my world on my own, no rope needed." All the sudden his eye gained a wicked glint to it as he murmured in a husky tone, "unless you want to use it to tie one of us up so the other can have their wicked way with them."

At his words the scarred Chuunin blushed bright red as he yelped, "Kakashi," in a scandalized tone before he smirked as he purred, "does that mean that you'd consent to be at the mercy of a mere academy teacher…"

Kakashi's eye dropped to half mast as he purred back, "of course not," Iruka pouted but perked up when the Jounin continued, "but I'm perfectly willing to be at the mercy of my dolphin."

That statement got a grin from said dolphin and a kiss for the scarecrow, "all joking aside, aren't you and Team Seven supposed to be on a mission today," asked Iruka as he looked down into a pair of mismatched eyes. Kakashi had sat down on the couch as they had spoken and pulled the Chuunin after him so that Iruka was sitting in the silver haired mans lap.

Kakashi ran his hands up from where he'd been resting them on Iruka's hips, as he ran his palms up the younger mans back he said, "we did, the Hokage assigned us another C-Rank mission, he gave us until tomorrow to get ready and to say goodbye. However," he said as he undid the hair tie holding Iruka's hair up in a ponytail and tangled his fingers in it, "I prefer to say goodbye with actions not words. Since you have the night off, my dearest, I fully plan to make sure you will be feeling me long after I've gone and I want you to make it so I can't move without remembering tonight."

Iruka's eyes had darkened at the growling tone that the Jounin was using on him before he smirked as he purred back as he had shrugged his vest off, "a wonderful idea, my beloved Hound." Their first night together Iruka had seen the ANBU tattoo and had recalled that there had been only one silver haired operative beside Hound and it was well known that Wolf was Sakumo Hatake. Kakashi had been stunned the first time that Iruka had referred to the older Shinobi as his silver Hound. At the older man's baffled look Iruka had smiled and dropped the genjutsu hiding his own ANBU tattoo from sight.

At Iruka's tone as well as the use of his ANBU code name, the mismatched eyes had dilated in arousal and Kakashi purred dangerously, "then I shall use since it pleases my dearest Bear." Kakashi had gaped for several moments at his lover when he had first found out that his beloved Chuunin had been Konoha's infamous Bear, who guarded the Hokage on occasion, it had made sense when he thought about it. Both Bear and Iruka were well trusted by the Hokage, everyone among the ANBU knew that the Hokage valued Bear's opinion and the Hokage clearly trusted Iruka's judgment.

Kakashi flared his chakra to raise the security level on his house's defenses before he moved them to his room, as he leaned over the prone man he said, "let's get started then. I do leave first thing in the morning…" As he trailed off the silver haired Jounin tossed his flak jacket toward the closet before he pulled out a kunai and sliced off the bandages around his ankles and right thigh. He did the same for Iruka's bandages before he tossed the now destroyed wraps to the side and threw the Kunai at the board next to the closet, he then reached down to the hem of his shirt to pull it off.

Once the shirt had cleared his chest and was only wrapped around his arms, Iruka had leaned forward to bite and suckle at Kakashi's left nipple, the Jounin gasped as he tilted his head backwards. He tossed this shirt away from them haphazardly before he tangled his left hand back into Iruka's hair and placed his right hand on Iruka's thigh. While he was distracted by the sensations caused by the hot mouth latched onto him, Iruka had opened his pants.

Kakashi had whimpered pleadingly as Iruka withdrew his touch, both his mouth and his hands, "don't you think we're a bit overdressed for this," Iruka purred. To his amusement Kakashi had shucked off his pants hurriedly before he tossed them in the same general direction of his shirt. Right as the Jounin had pounced, Iruka used a move that caused the older man to be pinned under the still clothed Chuunin, both red and black eyes widened at the feel of cloth against his bare skin. As he was still stunned to find out that Iruka was still dressed as well as by the move the Chuunin had used on him, Iruka used a jutsu to bind the Jounin's wrist to the head board.

As Iruka ran his nails down the Jounin's chest and abs he purred, "finally, you're all mine to do with as I please, instead of you distracting me with those hands of yours."

Kakashi pouted as he said, "I thought you liked my hands all over you," as he had spoken the Jounin had wriggled his fingers as if to emphasize what he was talking about.

Iruka laughed and murmured as he kissed the older man lightly, "I love your hands but they can be far too distracting when all I want to do is explore and memorize you." As he eyed the other man hotly Iruka purred something that could be taken as either a threat or a promise, "I fully plan to compare my memory with the real thing after you get back from your mission."

Kakashi's eyes widened before they darkened even further than before as he relaxed into the mattress as he said, "in that case… Take all the time you want, my Iruka-Koi."

After a moment Kakashi wondered about the wisdom of saying that Iruka could take his time with the Jounin, this was due to how Iruka was just staring at him as if he was committing the sight of the Jounin, tied up and at his nonexistent mercy, to memory. Which as it so happened was exactly what the teacher was doing, once he had gazed upon the bared body of his lover to his satisfaction Iruka had reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the chakra channeling oil from it. The Chuunin poured a small amount into his hands after he had removed is own clothing, he ignored his own rock hard shaft as well as how the Jounin had licked his lips at the sight of his lovers bare body. Tonight nothing was going to distract the Chuunin from his goal of commenting everything about his lover to memory. That included sight, sound, taste, feel and smell, if asked Iruka would gladly proclaim that he loved the way Kakashi smelled, he smelled like musk, rain and, funnily enough, vanilla. Most would find that last one a bit odd combined with the first two smells but it seemed to work for the Jounin, Iruka ran his oil slick hands along the Jounin's arms, chest and abdomen, he massaged the tension that lingered in the muscles away as he did.

Once Kakashi was completely relaxed, Iruka had coaxed the older man to spread his legs and place one of them on the Chuunin's shoulder, Iruka ran his tongue from the base of Kakashi's cock to the tip. Instead of lapping at the tip like he had the last few times he had done this, Iruka had plunged until his nose touched the silver nest at the base. His action caused Kakashi's head to fly back and hit the pillows as he keened, from pleasure as well as utter shock, Iruka swallowed around the girth in his mouth and throat as he brought slick fingers to the Jounin's entrance. He traced the tight muscle until it relented and relaxed enough for him to slip a single finger inside, he slowly used it to coax the muscle into loosening even more until it allowed him to slip another finger inside. He swallowed again around the Jounin's shaft as he crooked the two fingers in a come here movement, this action caused Kakashi to whimper in pleasure. The whole time he had been coaxing the muscle into letting in a second finger Iruka had been sucking on the turgid shaft inside his mouth, as he was sucking he had rose up the shaft. When he reached the top of it he had fluttered his tongue against the older mans tip, which wrung a strangled groan from the Jounin.

Of course that groan was probably had more to do with how Iruka had pressed against Kakashi's prostate as he had done that, once the tanned man felt the silver haired man was relaxed enough he pressed in a third finger. He spread the fingers apart as he pulled them out and narrowed them again as he shoved them in, each time he thrust them inside the older man he aimed for his prostate. After he had added third finger Iruka had pulled off the ridged shaft, he had then swirled his tongue around the head before he used soft short licks on the head of it to gather the droplets that were oozing from the hole. "Iruka, for Kami's sake, stop teasing me," the silver haired man hissed as he writhed under the Chuunin's tongue and fingers.

"Your wish is my command," Iruka purred roughly, his voice was raspy due to the attentions that he had paid to the turgid member that he was now licking in between words. He then urged Kakashi to place the leg not draped over his shoulder around his waist as he slid his fingers out of Kakashi and placed his oil slick member at the loosened entrance. Kakashi keened in pleasure as Iruka slid into his tight grasping tunnel, Iruka gritted his teeth and in his mind went through the most disgusting things he had ever seen or heard about to keep from exploding too soon. Kakashi had raised his hips upward into the academy teachers downward plunge, which caused Iruka to slam into him all the way to the hilt in one thrust.

The Jounin had hissed as he felt the conflicting sensations of being too full and of delicious friction, as he went from achingly empty to being so full he felt like he could burst apart at the seams. As someone who routinely goes toe to toe with a taijutsu master, the silver haired man had perfect and total control over his muscular system. As such, it took more effort for him to not consciously relax his muscles as Iruka had stretched him, but as he had told Iruka earlier, he wanted the reminder of tonight for as long as possible.

Iruka had held still once his hips were flush against Kakashi, he was waiting until the Jounin had signaled that he was ready for more, which only took a few moments. The Jounin had clamped down lightly with his muscles as he purred, "you can move now, my bear, I can take it and anything you can throw at me." A shiver raced up then down his spine as Iruka merely smiled in response to his teasing/dare, the Chuunin pulled back slowly until all that was left buried in the Jounin was the head of his shaft.

As the silver haired man opened his mouth to plead/order/beg Iruka to stop teasing him, the tanned hips snapped forward and all that exited Kakashi's throat was a keening wail, Iruka had managed to nail the Jounin's prostate directly with that move. However, Iruka's managing that was not a coincidence, there had been a reason he used the chakra channeling oil and that was it, during his preparations of Kakashi's tunnel he had pumped a bit of his chakra directly into Kakashi's prostate. As such if he wanted to score a direct hit on the older man's pleasure spot all he had to do was sense for his own chakra and aim for it. Which he did, repeatedly, to Iruka's immense satisfaction, his actions caused his lover to become a squirming, panting mess underneath him. As he bit and sucked on the Jounin's neck, Iruka thought to himself, _'I never would have believed that one day I would be the one to turn the legendary Kakashi Hatake into a writhing moaning mess. He is absolutely beautiful like this and he's all mine,'_ as he thought that, Iruka's eyes gleamed possessively as he pulled back to admire not only his work on Kakashi's throat but also the way the Jounin was sweat slicked, panting with a flush of pleasure and arousal that started at his cheeks and continued to his mid chest.

Kakashi clutched at the headboard as Iruka pulled Kakashi's legs from his shoulder and waist, the Chuunin then bent the Jounin's legs so they framed the sweat slicked face beneath him. His hips thrust in faster, shorter strokes and the position not only pinned the Jounin's arousal between their abdomens this gave the neglected member much needed friction. As he thrust into the older man the position also allowed Iruka to be able to score direct hits upon the older mans prostate with his entire body weight behind each thrust. After several moments of this hard pounding, Iruka felt as Kakashi's muscles clamped down on him in a series of spasms as the Jounins shaft pulsed between them and if the house wasn't soundproof then a lot of Shinobi's would have thought that the owner of it was being killed due to the keening wail that was ripped from Kakashi's throat.

Iruka swiftly followed his lover over the edge as the contractions from Kakashi's orgasm around him combined with the sound of the wail, the feel of Kakashi's load spreading between them and the smell of it, the way the smell of musk increased in the air. As he thrust into the powerful man beneath him, Iruka sank his teeth into the junction between Kakashi's neck and shoulder until he tasted blood, once he was spent the tanned man collapsed upon his lover. Before he did he had enough presence of mind to release the restraining jutsu holding Kakashi's wrists to the headboard.

As he came down from the endorphin high caused by his orgasm Iruka felt Kakashi tailing his fingers along the scar on his back, he hummed in pleasure and Kakashi commented in a voice raspy from screaming in pleasure, "well, I'll definitely be feeling this for a while. If nothing else the bruises will serve to remind me," Iruka gave his older lover a murmur of sleepy agreement at that. Kakashi chuckled as he nuzzled the Chuunin/Ex-ANBU before he murmured softly, "sleep, my precious one, I'll wake you before I leave…" He then grinned wickedly as he purred out as the Chuunin fell into a deep slumber, "it's a good thing you won't have to go to work for two days after I leave, because I fully plan to love you so hard and much that you won't be able to feel your legs for hours afterwards."

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All three Genin's of Team Seven pointedly did not ask just why their sensei was limping slightly nor why he looked so insufferably pleased with himself. They just knew that the answer to both of those questions had to do with his new relationship with Iruka and that was something they didn't want to know. When Kiba had opened his mouth to ask just why the older man was limping both Hinata and Shino slapped him upside the head, "you don't want to know," they had hissed in unison, both for different reasons. Unfortunately, with a Doujutsu like the Byakugan you sometimes saw far more than you wanted to, and with the insects inhabiting their bodies the Aburame Clan tended to learn about certain subject far earlier than most children did.

The nine people were walking down the road, each of the Shinobi gave the puddle of water bemused looks, while Tazuna puzzled over the odd glances that they had given it when the puddle exploded. Two men leapt out of it, to Tazuna's and the men's surprise it was Hinata who took them on, she easily dodged the attacks the pair made and sealed off their chakra pointes before she rendered them unconscious.

Kakashi stared down at the 'demon brothers' in wry amusement as he said, "I wonder what Hiashi is going to make of this when he hears that Hinata was able to take down two rather infamous Chuunin level Nuke nin."

Kurenai shrugged before she said, "who knows, we better get these two sealed away before they cause a ruckus." Her red eyes flicked toward Kakashi as she had asked, "how are we going to get them back to Konoha? None of your summons are fast enough for the trip."

Kakashi smirked as he patted Naruto on the head as he said, "simple, we'll use Naruto-Chan's summons." At her confused look he said, "Kushina-San did have more than one summoning contract, remember Kurenai, she didn't leave her child unguarded you know. Her second favorite summon watched over Naruto for years before he became a Genin."

Naruto cut his thumb and swiped the bloody digit across the seal on his shoulder, with a puff of smoke a cheetah with a yellow forehead protector around it's neck, it had the plate on the left side of it's neck. He ruffled it's fur as he said, "hello, Shinobu. Do you mind taking these two to Badger-San in Konoha for me," as he asked it that he cocked his eyebrow in askance.

Shinobu purred as she said, "of course, little Master, I'd be glad to visit with Badger-Chan again, it's been ages since I've seen him." With that said she scooped up the scroll that held the two Chuunin level Nuke nins in her mouth before she raced off in the direction of Konoha.

Kurenai gaped and turned to Kakashi as she said in a stunned tone, "how can he have both summons if he's only signed one contract!"

Naruto walked along the path and called over his shoulder, "Okasan put a seal on my shoulder that lets me call the cheetahs. The cats come out of courtesy and respect for my mother, she had requested it of them that they answer me if I call so they do."

Kurenai shook her head as they continued down the road.

After the group reached the ocean, they boarded a small boat, Kurenai and her team were startled when Sakura, Sasuke along with Naruto merely stepped out onto the water. Sasuke summoned a hawk, it landed on his shoulder as it cocked it's head to the side, "keep an eye on things from above, Nova." The hawk nodded before he took off and Kiba stared at Sasuke oddly, "why are you looking at me like that for," asked Sasuke as he glared at Kiba.

"That's why you smell like hawks," exclaimed Kiba as he pointed at the Uchiha, "you can summon them!" At his remark all three other members of his team sighed and shook their heads in resignation, all of them hoped that Kiba would one day grow out of stating the obvious. Immediately after he proclaimed that he began sniffing Sakura and Naruto, "you," he pointed at the only female member of Team Seven, "smell like Badgers. But you," he pointed at Naruto as he said, "you smell faintly like cat but mostly like snakes," he paused before he sniffed his teammates. He gave Hinata a strange look as he said slowly, "just like Hinata does…" He frowned and turned to Hinata as he asked her, "can you summon snakes, Hinata?"

Hinata nodded as she poked her fingertips together as she said, "yes, Kiba, I can, Naruto let me sign the scroll after Manda-San said that he liked me, almost as much as his first summoner."

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After Tazuna's story and their arrival on shore, Team Seven took it upon themselves to surround the bridge builder. Later on, Kiba sniffed the air and said with a frown, "I smell something, do you smell that Akumaru," he glanced up at the small white pup on top of his head.

Akumaru sniffed the air and barked back to his human partner, Hinata activated her eyes and looked around, she frowned as she said, "it's only a hare, Kiba, nothing to worry about. Although," she paused before she said, "I wonder why it has a white coat, it isn't time for their coats to change yet…"

"Duck," Sakura shouted as she shoved Tazuna down and her teammates dove down, Hinata grabbed a hold of both of her teammates on her way down. The three were piled together as a huge sword flew over the group to slam into a tree. A moment later, a tall man with bandages wrapped around his lower face and upper neck appeared on it, his forehead protector had a line going through the symbol representing his village. The plate on the forehead protector was on his head, he wore the protector in a diagonal fashion with the plate on the left side of his head. His chest was bare save for a blue strap that looped around his neck, connected via a metal buckle and went to his waist diagonally, Naruto surmised that it was probably to hold his huge sword. He wore camouflage arm and leg warmers, his pants were light blue with vertical black strips and the claves of his pants tucked into his leg warmers.

The man stared down at the group and raised an eyebrow at how quickly the pale eyed girl had reacted to seeing his sword flying at her. As the three adults bantered back and forth Kiba had murmured, "thanks Hinata, I'd prefer to keep my head attached to my body." Shino had muttered his agreement to the Inuzuka's statement, as Team Ten pulled themselves up from the ground Team Seven already had Tazuna surrounded. Sakura tightened her gloves while Naruto unsheathed a pair of swords and Sasuke was putting on a pair of gloves with a gleeful smile, Tazuna raised an eyebrow at the three Genin's actions while Kurenai watched in shock as Kakashi took on Zabuza by himself, he had ordered both his team and hers to stay out of the fight.

As he did Sakura had called out idly, "remember, Sensei, your boyfriend would be very upset if you didn't come back to him so be careful," the pink haired girl had brushed her bangs out of her eyes just as idly as she had spoken.

Kakashi rolled his eyes as he called out lazily, "don't worry, Sakura, the one thing I don't plan to do is upset my dearest dolphin."

Zabuza's grey eyes widened at that comment before they narrowed as the copy cat nin said as he slid up his forehead protector to reveal his single Sharingan eye, " you three know what to do, so do it."

"Yes, Sensei," the three chorused as the prepared to be attacked.

Every time Zabuza got a clone near the bridge builder, it was quickly killed by one of the three with ease, _'they're good,'_ he thought to himself as he dodged another attack by Kakashi. He then inwardly cursed before he thought with despair, _'damn, Haku might have to extract me if Hatake gets too close to killing me!'_

Zabuza was startled and impressed by Team Sevens resourcefulness when he had trapped Kakashi in his water prison jutsu, Kurenai had been about to step in despite Kakashi's order to not interfere when Kakashi had signaled his kids to handle the problem. As Kakashi was about to land the killing blow, a senbon flew from nowhere and landed in Zabuza's neck, a masked nin dropped down from the trees. The masked person bowed to the group and explained themselves before they vanished with the Nuke Nin's body.

"Tch, if that person is a Hunter Nin from Kiri then I'm not an Uchiha," Sasuke muttered as he caught his fainting sensei.

"He overdid it again," Sakura remarked as she eyed the fast retreating pair as she said softly, "it's odd though, Momochi left Kiri due to how the country was being run. Why would he condone Gato's actions like this," she glanced over at her blond teammate in confusion as she had asked that.

Naruto snorted before he helped Sasuke with their unconscious sensei as he said, "I don't know, Sakura, but I fully plan to find out, believe it!"

Once they had reached Tazuna's house, Naruto had said, "you guys can take the house watch, we'll watch our sensei in our tent," he had stared at Kurenai as he said that.

"What are you talking about, he'll rest much better inside then he would outside in a tent," the red eyed woman exclaimed.

Sakura snorted as she said from where her and Sasuke had been setting up the tent, "I think our sensei would rest more comfortably in a familiar place than an unfamiliar one. He's exhausted his chakra by using his Sharingan for so long," she had then turned to Naruto as she said, "make a few clones to take up watch, " the blond had nodded back to her and obeyed the order.

When Kurenai followed the four into the tent she gaped in shock at the living room and thought to herself, _'how is an entire house fit into such a small tent!'_

It took Kakashi two days to wake up from the amount of chakra he had used in the fight, during the time he was unconscious his team had practiced several moves and Naruto had sparred with Hinata. The pale eyed girl used her families techniques to block the blows that came from his swords with her bare hands. When he finally woke up, Kakashi saw Sakura sitting by his bedside, once she saw that he was awake she helped him sit up as she said, "good morning, Kakashi-Sensei. I'm glad to see that you're finally awake, you've been asleep for two days now. How do you feel," she asked as she helped him sip a cup of tea.

"I'm a little weak, but with any luck I'll be recovered when Zabuza attacks again with his friend," the silver haired man commented wryly between sips of the hot beverage.

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Meanwhile, Naruto was helping the 'Hunter Nin' find some herbs to help heal Zabuza, as they walked they had spoken of their precious people, once they had gathered enough of the right herbs Haku began to leave. He was startled when he heard Naruto call out, "tell Zabuza that if he attacks Tazuna again then we'll fight him but I can see no reason to harm either of you if you don't…" Haku's eyes had widened in shock as he stared at Naruto, his eyes widened even further when with a puff of smoke the younger boy vanished.

' _A clone, I was speaking to a clone,'_ the Ice Release user gaped silently before he muttered to himself, "I must speak to Zabuza-Sama at once about this." As he rushed toward their hideout, he idly pondered aloud, "and why does the name Uzumaki sound so familiar to me…"

The grey eyed man raised an eyebrow at the way Haku had burst into their hideout, both eyebrows shot up when Haku told him about his encounter with Naruto in the forest and what Naruto had said. He was even more shocked when Haku asked him idly, "does the name Uzumaki mean anything to you, Zabuza-Sama?"

"Where did you hear that name, Haku," asked the still weak Nuke Nin tensely.

Haku paused in preparing the herbs to say in a puzzled tone, "from the blond boy, he said that his name was Naruto Uzumaki, why do you ask?"

Zabuza huffed before he murmured, "the Maelstrom of the Whirlpools, that clan always did like their puns so he could actually be a true Uzumaki. There was one that lived in Konoha up until her death but you'd think that it would have been announced that he was her child, as fearsome as her reputation was it would have protected her son for a long time." Zabuza shuddered as he spoke, he had heard about the infamous woman from his fellow swordsman of the Mist as he laid there Zabuza wondered what Kisame was up to now.

Haku stared at his Master with wide eyes as Zabuza said, "once I'm healed enough, I wish to visit this boy that claims to be an Uzumaki. I want to ask just who his mother is…" Haku blinked at that information but nodded in agreement to his Master's words.

As he supported the older male so he could drink the tea made from the fresh herbs Haku asked softly, "does that mean you're reconsidering about your decision to have us work for Gato?" Once all of the tea had been drunk by the still weak ninja Haku helped him lie back down on the futon.

Zabuza huffed before he said as his eyes slipped shut, "that depends upon the kids answers to my questions…"

Haku watched as his most precious person slipped into slumber, he heard the note of hope in his masters voice. Although he didn't know what caused that note to appear but he hope that his master got a favorable answer from the blond if only so they wouldn't have to work for Gato anymore.

Three days later, as Naruto's clones helped Tazuna build the bridge, the two teams were surprised when Zabuza and the masked person appeared on the bridge. Kakashi narrowed his gaze at the other man, he noted that the other man was slightly pale and clammy. His eye widened as he realized that Zabuza was still recovering from their fight earlier in the weak, "why are you here, Momochi," asked the copy cat nin.

Zabuza ignored the silver haired man as he asked Naruto sharply while staring at the blond, "what is your mother's name, kid?"

Naruto gave him an odd look as he said slowly as if talking to a mentally damaged person, "my mom's name was Kushina Uzumaki. Why do you want to know," asked the blond as he crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the older man.

Kakashi saw as first shock then relief flood the other mans grey eyes before those same eyes filled with doubt and skepticism. "Can you prove that you're her son," asked the Nuke nin skeptically as he stared at the blond, while completely ignoring the other people on the bridge.

"Would using her swords and having them react the exact same way that they would have for her be sufficient or do I need to summon her favorite summon to prove it to you." The blond had snarked to the man as his hands flew through the motions of summoning an animal after he pulled out one of the two swords that he had inherited from his mother.

With a flicker of chakra the sword glowed blood red and with a puff of smoke a huge serpent appeared underneath the blond child. Naruto hadn't concentrated when heh ad summoned the snake so for the amount of chakra he put into the call he got Manda. Kakashi stared up at the large snake as he commented wryly, "you know, I almost had forgotten what Manda looked like and how big he was.."

Manda glanced up at the boy on his head as he asked, "why did you summon me here, Naru-Chan?"

Naruto frowned as he said with a pout, "he," as he pointed at Zabuza, "didn't believe me when I said that mom was my mom. Could you tell him that she is who I said she was," he gave the large serpent a pout as he asked that.

Manda heaved a sigh before he lowered himself so he was lying flat on the ground and stared Zabuza in the eye as he said, "his mothers name was Kushina Uzumaki." The snake rolled his eyes as he muttered, "he may look like his father but his personality is almost all his mother…"

"Manda," Naruto screeched at the huge snake as his teammates and sensei laughed at the pout that Naruto was giving the boss snake along with the rather true statement.

To everyone's surprise, including Haku's, the Nuke nin sighed in relief before he said in a rough tone, "I'm glad I finally found one of your clan. I was beginning to give up after so many years of not being able to find a single Uzumaki."

"Huh," Naruto uttered at he stared up at the grey eyed missing nin's before he asked, "what are you talking about? Why would you be so concerned with finding an Uzumaki for anyway?" He cocked his head to the side curiously as he had asked the man that, Haku also stared at his Master curiously.

Zabuza set down his sword before he sat down, he gestured for Haku to stand down, which mean that Haku was supposed to take off his mask, Haku obeyed the order and sat down as well. Sakura and Naruto's attention without trying to, ' _huh, I wonder if I should start matchmaking,'_ Naruto thought to himself. Naruto was jolted out of his inner thoughts when Zabuza said, "because my mothers clan swore loyalty to your mothers clan." The nuke nin shut his eyes as he said, "in short once Kiri lost my loyalty it reverted to only the for the Uzumaki clan and that clan's allies." His eyes snapped open as he said fiercely, "in other words, Little One, my loyalty belongs to you, to him," he pointed at Haku, "to him," he gestured to Sasuke. Then he pointed to Kakashi as he said, "and I suppose if you consider him to be family I guess that my loyalty will be his as well."

Without thinking Naruto exclaimed, "of course Kaka-Sensei's family, mom considered him to be her son so I suppose that should make him my big brother," he paused a bit before he said, "well, stepbrother." Naruto shrugged before he pointed at Kakashi as he said, "the fact that he's dating Iruka who I consider a big brother has almost nothing to do with it!" He then said with a fierce tone, "Sasuke is like an annoying older sibling who just won't stop teasing, Sakura is like my older sister due to how she's always berating me on manners and other things." He then glomped Hinata as he said cheerfully, "and Hinata-Chan here is my Baby sister," his eyes narrowed as he growled, "and if her father keeps up this ridiculous notion of pitting her against her younger sister I'm going to give him a very large piece of my mind!" Both of the girls mentioned had beamed at being thought of as family by the blond, Hinata had swiftly gotten over her crush on the blond after several sparring sessions with him, Sasuke and Sakura.

Zabuza huffed a laugh before he said with a hidden smile that crinkled the lines around his eyes, "I like you, Kid, you got guts and a sense of honor." At his words the blond boy blushed he rarely had anyone declare that they like him so blatantly. Zabuza stood up, walked over to Naruto and while Haku watched with wide eyes, knelt down in front of the blond as he said, "I, Zabuza Momochi of the Momochi Clan do hereby swear loyalty and fealty to the Uzumaki Clan. If I should, knowingly in any way, betray this oath may I die for it. Never shall I knowingly harm a member of the clan, for if I do let it be known that I am an Oath Breaker."

Kurenai gaped at the missing nin before she asked, "question Momochi, why did you say that Sasuke has your loyalty as well as Naruto, your partner and Kakashi?"

Zabuza looked over his shoulder from his still kneeling position as he said, "because the Uchiha Clan is the sister Clan of the Uzumaki's everyone who swears loyalty to the Uzumaki also swears loyalty to the Uchiha Clan. It goes against anyone who took the oaths grain to attack another member of the oath, the Uchiha clan were considered the Uzumaki's staunchest allies due to the loyalty oath they swore." He huffed a laugh as he rose to his feet and turned around to stare at the red eyed woman before he remarked, "the last and only time an Uchiha betrayed that oath that same Uchiha was disowned by the entire Clan. If the Uchiha's could have found a way to take away his blood right as an Uchiha they would have, they considered him that much of an oath breaker."

"What was the Uchiha's name," asked Sasuke curiously as he glanced at Haku, who was gaping at his Master in shock.

"Madara Uchiha," Zabuza said as he reached down and picked up his sword from where he had set it down, "he was once the Head of the Clan but he killed his younger brother for falling in love with someone, but that fact had only been known by a few people." Zabuza shrugged before he said with a smirk, "even fewer people knew just who Izuna had fallen in love with anyway, my ancestor was one and once we were old enough to understand the secret was passed on. My mom used to say that he deserved to have at least one person remember the true reason he died and not a false one."

"But everyone knows that he was killed by a fatal blow that Tobirama Senju gave him in battle," Kiba said with confusion in his voice.

"That's just what they allowed you to believe, both Tobirama and Hashirama believed the wound to be an accident and considering how close the pair had been to one another, neither of the brothers wanted Madara to know that it was his strike that caused the fatal wound. But those who were there knew better," Zabuza sighed as he shook his head.

"Who did Izuna fall in love with," Hinata asked softly as she wondered why Madara would have killed his brother over the person that he had fallen in love with.

Zabuza sighed before he said, "Tobirama Senju, Madara hated the Senju clan fiercely, sure he sided with them to build Konoha but my family always wondered what he had to gain by doing it…" He then glanced at Tazuna then over at Kakashi before he said, "you might want to send someone to guard his daughter. Gato's the type of man to attack her just to get to him, you know," to his surprise Kakashi's Genin had smirked at him for that comment.

"Already taken care of," Sakura purred with a smug smile as Sasuke disappeared in a puff of smoke, revealing that he had been a clone all along.

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Tsunami screamed in surprise when two men with swords attacked her and Inari, to their utter shock Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura appeared as the men attacked. Naruto was holding off the pairs single blades with his two swords, he then smirked at Inari as he said, "a hero always shows up on time. Okay he sometimes shows up a little late or early depending upon what's in his way from getting to where he needs to go, but he always arrives be it late, early or on time! However," he smirked again as he said, "I think Sakura, Sasuke and I arrived just in time," with that said the blond kicked on man toward Sasuke and the other from Sakura.

Once both men were beaten unconscious, the three Genin looked at the two before Sasuke said, "we better get back to the bridge, just because Zabuza's on our side now doesn't mean they won't need our help." With that the Uchiha summoned a hawk and ordered it to stay with the pair as well as to alert him if anything else happened to the pair while the three were at the bridge.

Once out of sight of the pair, Sakura and Naruto had vanished in a puff of smoke, when Sasuke had arrived back at the bridge he found Naruto with Kakashi and Zabuza kicking the thugs all across the bridge. Haku had Sakura, Team Ten and Tazuna within his ice dome to protect them, as he got closer he heard some of the thugs saying, "damn, that bitch is protecting our meal ticket, kill that Demon!"

Sasuke's eyes flashed red at that comment and kicked the speaker of it in the groin as he growled, "try going through me first, idiot!" Haku blinked at that but watched as Sasuke gleefully kept all the thugs away from the ice dome and admired the younger boys moves.

Sakura was smirking as she said, "well, we can relax now, those idiots just pissed of Sasuke and not even the Kazekage is willing to do that!"

Both Kurenai and Haku glanced at the pink haired girl sharply at that comment before they both made mental notes to ask her about that later, at least Kurenai made a note to speak to Sakura about it, Haku on the other hand just made a mental note to find out what she meant by that comment.


	10. Chapter Nine: Of Train Rides, Feasts and Notices!

**Chapter Nine:** _Of Train Rides, Feasts and Notices!_

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Hermione rapped on Kushina and Kisuke's front door before she opened it as she called out, "Kushina, it's time to go shopping!"

"What are you talking about Hermione," the brown eyed witch heard her female best friend call down from above her.

Hermione glanced up to see Kushina clad in her habitual outfit of black pants, a backless sleeveless shirt, today's shirt was red, and, according to Kushina anyway, the most comfortable boots she could find. On occasion she would wear sandals that strapped around the ankle, but usually it was boots that she wore, the red haired witch was leaning over the rail. Her hair was in a loosely woven braid and it was dangling over her left shoulder, she had her head cocked to the right in confusion. Hermione raised an eyebrow at her friend before she said with a smirk, "school begins in only one week and unless you've forgotten, there will be two balls held this year. One for Yule and the other for Valentines day, not to mention we'll need dress robes for Graduation…"

Kushina's eyes widened before she cursed softly in every language she knew, which was quite a few since Masaki made sure that Ichigo and her got lessons in several languages such as French, Spanish, English, Russian, German and even had them take a class on Latin as well as any other language that caught the pairs interest. Once she stopped cursing, she yelled over her shoulder, "Kisuke, I'm going shopping for school supplies. Do you need me to pick you up anything?"

The blond man poked his head out of the bedroom to blink at her before he said, "some more potions supplies would be good, more ink of course, some brushes and parchment as well." He then winced before he said, "could you also grab two more copies of Most Potente Potions, my creation has apparently decided that it looked good enough to eat."

Kushina opened her mouth to ask him what in the world he was talking about before she closed it with a soft click as she decided that ignorance was bliss and that she really didn't need to know. Instead she added his requests to her mental list before she raced downstairs and out the door with Hermione, when the two girls reached the group who were all going shopping she said, "instead of using a portkey to go to England to shop, how about we just go to Greece? For one: it's closer to Elysian Isle and 2: it has a better variety of Potion ingredients, not to mention you can haggle over the price, the locals consider it an insult if you don't haggle a little."

Mrs. Weasley blinked as she thought about it before she asked, "how is it closer? I thought we were in the Bermuda Triangle," all of those coming along glanced at Kushina when Molly said faintly, "I also thought you always left the island via portkey."

Kushina shook her head with a faintly bemused smile before she said with amusement, "Elysian Isle was warded in such a way that it became like the Hidden Countries, formerly known as Atlantis." At that comment Hermione had goggled at Kushina and the red head knew that she was going to get quite the lecture for keeping that little fact a secret. "Elysian Isle is now in a pocket dimension, the island is connected to several countries via portals, one of which is off the shore in that direction," she pointed toward the northeast as she said, "it's that portal that leads to Greece."

She shrugged as she said, "we would, of course, have to take a boat to go there, when you use the portal you arrive just on the horizon that's visible from Crete. Yes, Hermione, I can show you a map of all the portals later, actually," she said as she tapped her chin thoughtfully, "there is a portal linking Elysian Isle to the Hidden Countries. This island once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, the reason behind the name Elysian Isle is that this island was once just an isle. My ancestor used a combination of magic and chakra to expand the isle to be this large, truth be told, if I wanted to I could expand it even further. However, I think that the size it is right now is perfectly large enough, so unless I suddenly have a ton of people living on Elysian Isle I won't need to expand it any further."

After that shocking revelation everyone numbly followed the chipper woman to a large sailing vessel manned by a crew of house elves under glamour charms, only those who knew about magic could see that the crew was house elves not humans. Like the rest of the house elves on the island, the crew proudly wore the uniform declaring their job and station on the ship. To the house elves of Elysian Isle, the tea towels of the house elves of the English Wizarding World were highly insulting. Kushina snickered as she remembered how her elves had grumbled about how many of the house elves owners must have lost quite a bit of their gold if they could no longer afford to properly clothe their servants. Many of the noble houses that had attended her wedding had been extremely confused until Hermione had explained that the house elves of the Elysian Isle adhered to the ancient and oldest code of dress for house elves belonging to a specific owner/family/residence.

She had told her startled audience that families used to show off their wealth by how well they could dress their servants, the more elaborate or decorated their uniforms, the richer the family was. So as far as the islands elves were concerned none of their families must have the wealth and privilege they used to since they couldn't afford to properly clothe nor educate their servants. Amelia had been surprised at how well the elves could speak, she was even more surprised when she discovered that all of the elves could read and write as well as speak multiple languages.$

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Two hours later, the group had split up to do the shopping, thankfully both Kushina and Hermione were able to fit into their sixth year uniforms so they didn't need to buy more. Thus while Ron, Ginny, Karin, Yuzu and Luna were being fitted for new uniforms, the two girls were exploring the stalls of the magical market place, the last time Kushina had spotted her friend she had been at a book stall. Hermione had been haggling with the vendor over the price of a book, of course Kushina wouldn't be surprised if Hermione was trying to raise the price of the book if it was valuable enough Hermione was very determined to pay the true price of a book no matter what. Kushina moved among the stalls, as she purchased items she had them taken back to the island by some of her younger house elves, she didn't even notice the awed glances that the locals gave her. They recognized the insignia on the elves uniform, it only belonged to Elysian Isle and the family who held the Isle, all the locals knew that meant that the red haired woman likely followed the old ways since her elves were properly dressed despite her British accent.

To the locals, the appearance of two armed men only confirmed their suspicions when one of the men said, "your husband wishes to know if you would be opposed to letting him blow up something to test the effectiveness of a spell. He asked us to ask you if he was allowed to do that then what is he restricted from destroying." The man who had spoken had dark hair and skin with gold eyes, very similar to the woman's but not quite the same, the man was armed with a sword sheathed in a waist scabbard. The other man wore his sword in a sheath across his back, the man also had dark hair, however he had pale skin and piercing supernatural blue eyes, he had been leaning against a wall as his partner had spoken.

The young woman appeared to think it over before she said, "tell him that he may destroy the rocks just off shore of the northern coast but only those rocks."

The man bowed deeply as he had murmured, "as you will it, my Lady, I shall inform your husband immediately." With that said he had turned and left the area, however his partner stayed, when the woman continued on down the stalls the man fell into step just one foot behind and to the left of the woman. His hands were in his pants pockets, the locals could tell that though he was fairly relaxed that fact could change at a moments notice if anyone attacked his Lady.

As the locals watched the red haired woman as joined by a brown haired and eyed woman, the lady greeted her with a smile as well as a cheerfully said, "I see you finished haggling with the vendor, Hermione. See anything else that you want to take a closer look at," she asked as she gestured around them.

Hermione tucked the book into her purse as she said, "yes, I did," after she had responded to her friends first statement she had adjusted her sunglasses before she said, "I don't know… Should I get Yachiru and Kenpachi a present for behaving," she asked lightly before she brightened as she said, "after all, Kenpachi hasn't sent his men to the fourth for over two months and Yachiru hasn't stolen anymore of Byakuya's Koi fish."

The red head shrugged lazily before she said nonchalantly as they strolled past a stall full of life-like animal statues. Both women paused as they saw the stall, they smiled as they saw four odd groups of animals, group one consisted of three animals: a large lion with a black mane, a small leopard and a Serval. Group two consisted also of three animals: a lion with a yellow mane, a white wolf and a Kings cheetah while group number three consisted of five animals: another lion with the black mane, a black dog, a grey/brown wolf, a stag and an absolutely massive lioness. The final group contained only four animals: it held the same leopard as the first group, the cheetah from group two, a huge wolf that was sandy brown in color and a reddish colored tiger.

Hermione ran her finger along the back of the eight inch long lion, it stretched and purred as it moved into the caress as she said, "I think I just found the perfect present for Kenpachi and Yachiru."

Kushina watched the last two groups with an amused smile as she said, "and I think these two would be perfect for Teddy's room and this group," she tapped the table lightly in front of group number two as she said, "is almost perfect." She then looked up as she asked the merchant, "do you do commissioned work," when he confirmed that he did she flashed him a smile as she said, "good then. I'd like to request a few groups from you." He got out a pad of paper and a pen, Kushina was a bit surprised by the muggle items but she didn't say anything about them. "The first group needs to be this cheetah," she tapped the Kings cheetah, "this lion," she topped the yellow lion as she said with a grin, "and a small yellow fox with nine tails."

He wrote down the odd group and listened as she said, "group two is this group here but add the fox and a white wolf/dog. Group three is the white wolf/dog and a brown bear, while group four needs to be a crocodile with a Komodo dragon. Group five is a tiger with a large desert lion," she watched as he quickly wrote down the four groups before she continued with the final group, "the last one needs to be the yellow fox with a black owl that has pale white eyes."

The man nodded before he said cheerfully, "the total will be eighty galleons and I'd like half up front please."

To his surprise she immediately placed forty galleons on the table as she said with a smirk, "finish them before September first and I'll throw in an additional twenty galleons. How much for these three groups," she asked as she gestured at the ones that had caught her eye.

He glanced at them before he said, "thirty-nine galleons, my lady."

All those watching gaped in shock when she dropped the amount on the table without batting an eyelash as she said, "I'll take them. Just address the letter about the others to Elysian Isle and one of the elves will bring it to me. I'll pay the rest when I pick them up," she said as she scooped as she did she froze the animation so she could place them in a bag.

The man nodded as he wrote that down, he and the rest of the vendors watched as the two women walk away talking, then they all noticed a large man making his way toward the two women. The brown haired woman noticed the man and her face lit up as she exclaimed, "Kenpachi, I thought you were at your division. What are you doing here," she asked with wide brown eyes as she leaned against his chest.

The eye patch wearing man chuckled as he brushed his thumb against her right cheekbone then said in a rough voice, "my job, my Leopard, I'm here doing my job." He smiled as he said, "however, after I finished what I came here to do I spotted you two," what he didn't say was that he hadn't spotted them but he had sensed Kushina's Reiatsu.

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Four hours later, Kushina left Hermione and the others behind as she made her way to the Greek branch of Gringotts, according to Salazar's portrait, he had left a very important item in a vault there. He told here that they key to the vault was a password spoken by the Slytherin headship ring, the door wouldn't accept any other person/being speaking the password. Upon seeing the ring and hearing her request to be taken to her Vault, she was rushed to it, the vault was buried deep below the surface after many twists and turns the carts stopped in front a huge door with a woman carved on it. At least on her upper half, she appeared to be a woman but her lower half was that of a large serpent.

Feeling a little bit silly she held out her hand and the snake hissed, "greeting Mother Empress, tectum ponit serpentem in leonum." With this the statue 'opened' it's eyes and then nodded to the red head before she opened the door to the vault. At first Kushina thought the vault was empty before she potted something sitting on a pedestal, it was a box half the size of the book Hermione had found Flamel in when they were in first year. With no little wariness, she approached the box, it was covered in intricate carvings. Her eyes widened in shock as she realized that along the sides of the boxes were the nine tailed beasts of the Elemental countries and atop the lid was the ten tailed beast that was sealed inside of legendary Sage of Six Paths. Only a person who had seen the beast that could have carved them all, her clan was the only clan that held pictures of each tailed beasts drawn by the hand of the Sage of Six Paths.

As she traced the carvings she idly wondered how Salazar had obtained this box and more importantly she wondered what the box contained within it, she then picked up the box before she left vault. The goblin who had escorted her glanced curiously at the box, he obviously wondered just what the beast carved on the top was but he kept silent. Kushina had sent the group back to the Isle earlier so she merely apparated back via a designated location.

She reappeared in the foyer of her and Kisuke's villa, she absentmindedly walked up the stairs to the office on the second floor. She heard a house elf tell her husband had gone to his division to deal with an experiment that had apparently gotten out of control.

She placed the box onto the desk to study it more closely, it was carved from a blood Xi Shu tree, there was no discernable line to indicate how to open it. However, she ran her thumb over the ten tails carving that had been made of onyx and inlayed into the box. When she did she cut herself on a sharp edge on the mouth of the beast, she hissed at the unexpected sting before she heard a soft click. Along an unadorned strip of wood a faint line appeared, her brow furrowed as she tilted the now loose lid from the bottom. After she set the lid aside she glanced at the contents briefly before she did a double take, inside the box of scrolls.

She gingerly picked up one of the scrolls, she unsealed it and skimmed through it, she then read it all the way through in shock. The scroll had been penned by the Sage of Six Paths, it detailed how he had split the ten tail into nine beasts before he died. At the bottom of the scroll was a letter, to her, it read:

' _Dear Kushina,_

_I'm sure you're surprised to read this letter since by the time you are born I will be long since dead, everyone knows that I had two sons, but few knew that I had a daughter as well. My daughter had a daughter who in turn had a daughter who in turn bore three children, two daughters and a single son. From the first of my sons descended the Uzumaki, Gryffindor and Sabaku clans while from the other son descended a clan later known as the Senju. Unknown to many the three lines would converge into a single line, the Uzumaki's would merge into the Hyuga line and create the Sharingan due to the dormant Rinnegan in the Uzumaki line._

_You are descended from two of the three lines, the line that held the Uzumaki, Gryffindor and Sabaku blood as well as the Slytherin bloodline the only one that your current body doesn't hold is that of the Senju line. However, I wouldn't worry about that fact since I have something very important to tell you._

_I, Nakatomi no Kamatari, do hereby declare my direct descendant Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze to be my heir. I entitle her to receive all of my written works as well as my five objects should she so choose to. I leave to her the following items: my cloak, my necklace, the Bashosen, the Benihisago, the Kohaku no Johei, the Kokinjo and the Shichiseiken. I highly doubt that you will ever use these items but should you so choose to you may claim them as your blood and birth right._

_The seal below will allow you to summon the five objects at will, merely think of the item you want and summon it as you would a summon animal. Merely place a finger coated with your blood and chakra against it to activate it as well as link it to you alone. This seal will work only one time after that you will have to redraw it, I've left the instructions inside one of the scrolls contained within this box._

_Good luck and long life,_

_Your ancestor_

_Nakatomi no Kamatari_

_The Sage of Six Paths_

_P.S. I've left you a legacy as well within the seal but it should make more than just your family and clan respect you.'_

She goggled at the letter before she muttered under her breath as she pricked her right thumb and pressed it against the seal at the bottom as she pulsed her chakra to it. "Well that does certainly explain a few things and it even makes sense when you think about it…"

"What does," Kisuke asked as he leaned into the room to stare at her quizzically.

She glanced over at him, he must have shed his Haori and upper garments since he was clad in only his hakama. She held the scroll out to him so he could read it for himself which he did, after a moment of reading it he snorted as he handed it back to her while saying, "you're right. That does make things a lot clearer," he then snagged a second scroll and opened it, it had only been held shut by a silk ribbon. He raised an eyebrow as he murmured, "this looks promising…" The scroll contained several long lost jutsus, the spouses shared a glance before Kushina grinned as she began jotting down the notes into a leather bound book that had every protection charm that she could think of to put on it.

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A week later, Kushina and her friends boarded the train to Hogwarts for their last year, Ron had raced off after the prefect meeting to find Rukia. The Headgirl was Hermione while the Headboy was Draco, surprisingly enough, the blond seemed to be keeping his priorities straight after he had begun dating Astoria. However, perhaps Sirius had spoken the truth when he had said, "if a Black upsets their mate then that Black will do anything, including changing the way they treat others, in order to please their mate."

Hermione, Kushina and Ginny were sharing a compartment while Luna had refused to leave Sajin's side once they had boarded, Tetsuzaemon was patrolling the top of the train with Kenpachi. Just after Hermione had asked the married girl about just who would be replacing her next year, the door had opened to reveal Parvati and Lavander in the entranceway. Kushina winced when she had screeched, "where's my Won Won," Ginny raised her eyebrows in shock as she mouthed _'Won Won,'_ with a disgusted look on her face.

Kushina raised her eyebrows at Lavander's possessive words as she thought to herself, ' _I thought Rukia had disabused her of the notion that Ron was available to date…'_

' _ **Her warning was months ago, My Lady, it could be that the warning has merely slipped her mind,'**_   Thanatos pointed out reasonably. After he said that both of them heard a soft snore from Anubis, the dark god had stayed awake all night playing in the forest on the Isle, _**'I think he's still tired,'**_   Thanatos muttered softly.

' _ **Gee, ya think,'**_   she said sarcastically back as she looked over Hermione's shoulder at the two girls before she uttered in a deadpan tone, "what do I look like? His mother? Besides," Kushina added idly as she stretched absently, "I wasn't aware that Ron was yours, after all he's his own person with his own mind."

"Yeah, Lavander," Hermione said before she waved at the pair dismissively, unknowingly flashing the ring that Kenpachi had presented her over the summer as she did.

She swiftly realized what she had done when Parvati had squealed as she exclaimed, "Hermione, did you get married over the summer," as Parvati had spoken the brown haired girl had stared pleadingly at her friend.

Even Parvati gave her friend a disbelieving look at what came out of her mouth next, "I bet it was to my Won Won, the little slut."

At that comment, Ginny had stood up as she glared at the older girl before she growled, "actually she's engaged to Kenpachi, you remember him, don't you Lavander? Big guy with lots of muscles and scars, wears an eye patch and is Kushina's absolute favorite sparring partner." She rolled her eyes at the gaping look on the fashion obsessed witches faces at that before she muttered to herself, "Kushina's the only one that got married over the summer. I, on the other hand, am promised to Tetsuzaemon and Ron asked Byakuya for Rukia's hand in marriage so they're contracted to marry…"

After Ginny had said that Lavander left the compartment in a huff and the brown eyed red head smirked at the sight of that before she turned to Kushina, "well, are you going to answer Hermione's question or not," she asked in an impatient tone.

Kushina briefly contemplated on whether or not to feign confusion over what the question she was supposed to answer was, in the end though she decided against it and answered the question. "I'm going to suggest that Nanao Isa, Isane Kotetsu, or Nel as my replacement for teaching the Shinigami Arts Class. As for who I will be suggesting as my replacement for the Student Head of Gryffindor house is simple, I'm suggesting Dennis Creevey, that is if he's willing to take the job. He'll be a fifth year student next year so the younger years will listen to him and if he has any trouble with the older years he'll have his brother and you to back him up. By the time the pair of you graduate Dennis will be a sixth year and have a year at being the Student Head of House under his belt."

After she said that she rose from her seat and walked out of the door as she called over her shoulder, "speaking of it, I better go ask Dennis if he'd be willing to take over for me." She quickly located the fourth year, who was sitting with Collin, Seamus and Dean, "I hate to interrupt but I need to talk with Dennis for a moment," Kushina said as she leaned against the door. Dennis blinked but followed her out of the room, she led him out onto the empty area between compartments before she said, "I have something important to ask you and you're free to say no to the question." His brow furrowed but he nodded in understanding so she took a deep breath before she asked, "would you be willing to be the next Student Head of House for Gryffindor?"

He goggled at her before he said in a stunned tone, "so long as the Professors don't object to it, I'd be glad to accept the position!"

She breathed a silent sigh of relief before she grinned at him as she said, "thank god and as for any objections I can't see them making any so long as you do a good job at the position." She then slapped him on the shoulder as she said, "the announcement of your appointment to the position will be made at the end of the school year when I graduate, alright,' she asked and received a nod from blond. She then smirked before she commanded him, "good, then you're dismissed for now, go back to the boys," he gave her a sloppy salute and did an about face to do as she commanded.

As she returned to her compartment a Patronus appeared in front of her and opened it's mouth, out of the birds beak issued Albus' voice, "Kushina, when you reach Hogsmead station I need you to come see me immediately." As she thought about that odd request she had twirled a Kunai around the middle finger of her right hand, she was lightly humming a song to herself as she did. The first years that saw her stared at her in shock, at least those without older siblings who told tales of Gryffindor's crimson Fox. Even though the entire school was now aware that Kushina was a cheetah animagus they still likened her personality to that of a fox for her mischievous and cunning ways.

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As the other students debarked from the train, Kushina had used shunpo to reach Hogwarts in a matter of seconds, she then made her way to the Headmasters office. She quickly gave the gargoyle guarding the office the password of, "sweet tarts," it leapt aside and she went into the entrance. She smirked as she stepped onto the moving staircase, once she reached the top she opened the door without being ordered to, Albus had given her carte blanche to come to his office whenever she wanted barring her classes.

When she opened the door she found Albus sitting at his desk writing, he had glanced up at her and smiled before he gestured to her usual chair as he said, "have a seat, Kushina. This shouldn't take much longer," she shrugged and sat down, Albus proved to be right about his letter not taking long since he swiftly sealed it before he handed it to Fawkes. Kushina watched in amusement as the phoenix trilled before he took the letter from the white haired wizard and vanished in a burst of fire.

"You wanted to see me, Albus," Kushina asked as she took a proffered lemon drop from him with a smirk.

Albus smiled as he leaned back against his chair before he said, "I merely wished to know if you've contemplated your replacement as the Student Head of House as well as your replacement as the Professor of the Shinigami Arts class. That is unless you've changed your mind about not staying as a Professor," he asked hopefully.

She shook her head before she murmured, "no Albus I haven't reconsidered staying as a Professor, I have however thought about who will be my replacements. In fact, just before I received your Patronus I had just spoken with one of them and got his agreement for the position proving that neither you nor the other Professors objected to his appointment to it. Dennis Creevey is my choice to be the next Student Head of House for Gryffindor, he's calm, capable, he doesn't tolerate bullying or bigotry and he's a beater so most aren't likely to even think about crossing an order from him." She smirked at that before she said wryly, "as for my replacement as the Shinigami Arts teacher… I'd suggest asking Isane Kotetsu, Nanao Isa, Tia or Nel to be the next one, I'm leaning more towards Nanao, she's an expert in Kido after all."

Albus nodded in resignation, she realized that he'd been hoping that she'd change her mind about not staying, however what she hadn't told him was that Kisuke had asked if she'd be willing to find a way to return to Konoha, permanently. Or at least until a fifth Hokage could be chosen, the blond man had laughed before he had muttered, "I wasn't Hokage for that long before my death and by the King I want to stay the Hokage until I've chosen my replacement, whoever that is." For some odd reason he had glanced at her with a sly grin when he had spoken of his replacement, and that smile had widened when she had commented that Naruto would be years away from being Hokage when they returned.

She watched as Albus sucked on a lemon drop before he said, "young Dennis is a good choice, his grades are good, he rarely gets detention and when he does take the position the school will have him for three years like we did you."

Kushina had nodded in amusement since she had chosen him for much the same reasons that he just listed, as she nodded she said, "that's one reason I picked him so easily. He's the logical choice as far as grades, behavior and duration is concerned, fifth years are made into prefects and put into positions authority, so long as the prefects obey the Student Head of House the rest of Gryffindor will follow suit." She then furrowed her brow as she asked, "who's making all the announcements down there while we're chatting up here," she had tilted her head to the side quizzically as she asked. She had felt the students gather below but thought nothing of if until the first years arrived and began moving, first to the hat then to their houses as they were sorted.

Albus beamed as he said cheerfully, "Minerva is, I believe your parents are playing her usual part in the sorting," he then smiled sadly at her before he remarked, "I've been thinking about retiring as soon as Voldemort is taken care of, or if he's taken care of before a school year is through at the end of that school year. By allowing her to do this I'm letting her get a handle on what it's like so when I do step down she'll be able to handle it without being thrust into the role." He leveled a blue eyed stare at her as he said, "if you hadn't already informed me that you wouldn't be interested in staying on as a Professor I would have asked you if you'd be willing to step in my shoes when I'm gone. However you're still the Head of the Kings Guard, you have enough weight upon your shoulders to have me add to it…"

Before she could say anything he had clapped his hands together and rose from his seat as he said, "let us be off, my dear, or we will miss the feast!" Kushina sighed but followed him with a wry smile on her face, once they reached the ground floor they entered the Great Hall. The pair had nodded to the four Founders before Kushina split off to sit down at the Gryffindor table and Albus went to the Head Table to take his usual seat.

After everyone had eaten, Albus had stood up and said with a smile, "I'm sure you all are tired and wish to be abed already," his blue eyes twinkled merrily as he quipped that. "However, I have a few announcements to make, the first is that the first Quidditch match will be postponed until an event is over," there were murmured protests from the students at that. Albus held up a hand as he said calmly, "that even is a Student Dueling Tournament, where the winning student will be allowed to choose any single professor to duel with." He then stared at them gravely before he said sternly, "only fifth through seventh years may participate beyond watching. Depending upon the outcome of this tournament, Hogwarts may or may not keep it as a traditional event."

As the students murmured amongst themselves curiously, Albus had said with a smile, "due to the length of the tournament, along with having the duel between the winner and professor taking place on the third of December, as such the first Quidditch match will take place a week after that. It was also decided that there will only be three matches held this year, Captains, please come forward and pick a ball from the bucket," he gestured to the bucket sitting in front of him. The four Captains glanced at each other before they rose from their seats and obeyed the soft order, Albus then asked them to call out the number on their ball for Minerva to write down.

"Two," Kushina said calmly as she sat back down in her seat at her house table.

"One," called out the Ravenclaw captain, he was staring curiously at the other two team captains as he did.

"I have a one as well," Draco commented with well hidden confusion as he set the ball down in front of him.

"And I've got another two," the Hufflepuff captain called out.

Albus interlaced his fingers together as he said with a smile, "it seems that this years first match will be Ravenclaw verses Slytherin followed by Gryffindor verses Hufflepuff. Whichever team wins the second match will face the winners of the first and the winners of the third match will be given the Quidditch cup."

After the usual announcements the students were dismissed and sent to bed, as usual Kushina introduced herself and Minato. However, this time she said, "next year Minato will not be here since I'm graduating this year, you will instead have a new Student Head of House and their portrait. I've already named my selection to the Headmaster and I'm merely waiting upon his approval," she gave them all a steady stare as she said firmly, "I fully expect that you all give my successor the respect that they are due. In other words, respect my successor as you would me, understood," her gaze flowed from person to person as she had said that firmly. Once all of them had nodded in understanding she smiled cheerfully as she chirped, "good, then I'm going to bed. Goodnight and don't stay up too late," she called over her shoulder as she entered her quarters when Minato had opened the door silently for her.

The portrait of her husband watched as his beloved dragon rolled her shoulders tiredly before she sat down and summoned a cheetah. The big cat bowed before she said, "hello, Lady Kushina, Lord Minato, what can I do for you," she had cocked her head to the side as she asked.

Kushina leaned back against the sofa as she demanded softly, "tell me about my son's progress, old friend." The cheetah had nodded and did as her summoner had bade her to, she began to regale the pair with tales of their son's exploits. A smile hovered around both Kushina's lips as well as the portraits as they listened to the large cat tell them all about Naruto's D-Rank missions.

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Rin watched as her teammate/partner ran their fellow guards ragged with his pranks, she then shook her head in bemusement as she went to report to the lieutenant about the success of their mission. Her and Obito were startled when their beloved Minato-Sensei had turned up, they were even more surprised when he had asked them to help him with an experiment. Obito had happily accepted when he had discovered that said experiment involved explosions and other things that went boom.

Rin had despaired of how bad the hyperactive Uchiha would get if he ever met anyone who also considered explosions to be true forms of art.

Unknown to her a red haired 'man' felt a shiver of fear run down his spine as he listened to his partner cackling as he watched something explode again. The 'man' sighed before he had mumbled to himself, "I really, really hope Deidara is a one of a kind person. Heaven help the world if there is a person out there who loves things that go boom as much as he does…"

Soon after he said that he felt as his blond partner grabbed onto him as he asked cheerfully, "what are we doing now, Sasori-Danna?"

The puppet user sighed before he said as he shoved the blue eyed nin away from him, "now we go to our leader, Deidara."

The blond had pouted before he asked in a whining tone, "can we blow up more stuff later?"

Sasori held back another sigh and thought to himself, _'if I didn't know that Kushina Uzumaki only died eleven years ago, almost twelve, I'd swear that he was her reborn…'_   Aloud, however, all he said was, "maybe you can, maybe you cannot, we'll see," he then watched as Deidara created a giant clay bird for them to ride on.

As the pair left from the site of the explosion, Rin was berating Obito for running the other guards ragged, "they're not like us, Obito. They clearly can't keep up, so stop tormenting them," she ended with a bellow and the dark haired man cowered before her as she had yelled at him.

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Halfway through the night Kushina had sat up in bed and exclaimed to herself with a grin, "that's where I know those names from! That Momochi must be the child of Kana Momochi and the Yuki person must be related in a way to Hana Yuki." Her brow furrowed as she said aloud thoughtfully, "I wonder how those two families ended up so small… Hana had five brothers and three sisters, not to mention the last time I ran into her, Kana had mentioned that she wanted more kids. I know for sure that Kana had at least one son…"

She then flopped back down into the pillows as she said with a scowl, "of course I had to have my epiphany right now instead of in a few more hours." Her gold eyes flashed in irritation before she rose from the bed with a muttered, "I just know I won't be able to go back to sleep now so I might as well get up already."

She went over to her wardrobe and pulled out her favorite training outfit before she disrobed so she could get dressed, Hedwig opened one gold eye to stare at her Witch and hooted softly. Kushina looked up from where she was checking to make sure that her wraps were tight enough but not too tight and smiled at her, she then went over and scratched the owl behind her ear tuffs. The snowy owl leaned into the scratching as she made a series of low hoots that almost sounding like a purr if you didn't listen too closely, she then said softly, "go back to sleep Hedwig, I'll see you later okay," the female owl hooted softly as she bobbed her head.

She went out into the living room and sat down on the couch to put on her boots, she smirked to herself as she did so before she walked out of the portrait into the common room. She wasn't surprised to find it deserted at this late or rather early hour and exited the room to go down the hall to the Room of Requirement. Much like the common room the Room of Requirement was deserted so she changed it to resemble the Hatake training grounds before she summoned a few clones. For the next two hours, Kushina ducked, dodged and weaved around the attacks of her clones with ease, she had allowed herself to get lost in the motions of her spar. Thus allowing her mind to race knowing full well that her clones would allow her to retain the memories of her ramblings during the fight.

She allowed her clones to dispel three hours after she had woken up, she then went back to her rooms to shower before she headed to breakfast. She entered the common room to find it still empty, Minato looked up at her entrance and smiled at her before he returned his attention to his paperwork. She entered her rooms and headed straight for her bedroom after removing her boots, she greeted Hedwig absently as she scratched her atop her head again.

She had padded over to her bathroom on silent feet and turned on the shower before she stripped over her training outfit, she tossed it into the hamper before she stepped inside the spacious shower. She had stood under the pounding spray, after several moments of this, most of the remaining tension in her muscles dissipated, once it had she lathered up her hair then scrubbed her body clean of sweat and dirt. After she rinsed off her hair and body, she had put conditioner in her hair before she used a potion on her legs, arms and under arms to remove the hair from them. Once the requisite amount of time for the conditioner to set in her hair had passed she rinsed it from her hair along with the potion from her body.

She stepped out of the shower and quickly dried off before she wrapped a dry towel around herself and walked over to her wardrobe to pull out her uniform, although as a Student Head of House she was free to wear what she pleased so long as she wore a robe over it. After she had dressed and put on her heeled boots she left the room again, this time she headed for her office to go over her class schedule. Not for the classes she was to attend but the ones that she was to teach, she opened the door to find it just how she had left it last year.

An hour later she had rose from her seat to go to the Great Hall for the first meal of the day, when she entered the Hall she paused by Salazar, he glanced at her before he asked, "is there something I can do for you, Kushina?"

She smiled up at him before she said, "nothing, Grandpa Sal, I just wanted to let you know that I picked up that old chest from your vault in Greece when I was shopping there for school supplies."

Salazar blinked a bit before he laughed and asked with a smile, "were you able to open it," as he questioned her, Godric had glanced between his spouse and their heir.

Kushina had just nodded in response to his query when she felt tiny hands grab onto her pants and a familiar voice demanding, "up, Shina, up!" She glanced down at the tug and demand to see Cassiopeia pouting up at her pleadingly.

Without thinking she reached down and picked up the toddler, settling the dark eyed child on her hip with the ease of long practice. Practice that she'd gotten from her duties as godmother to Itachi as well as her earlier mothering of Kakashi. Even though he had been rather independent despite, or perhaps because, of the fact that he was only four years old when he lost his mother, Kakashi still occasionally craved the comforting touch of his mother. After his mother's death Kushina had stepped into the role and secretly became his father's best friend as well as partner, not even the Sandaime had been aware that the two were already friends when they had been assigned to the escort mission.

Neither had wanted the village to believe that their friendship was manipulative, deceiving or wrong in any way, besides the Hokage seemed pleased that the mission had brought the pair together as partners and friends. Although, they had only sparred with each other before the mission they had managed to learn each others favorite moves, techniques and habits but since they supposedly never been on assignment together or even met before, their ability to read one another's moves became legendary. Over time, their almost instinctive understanding of each others bodies, minds and moves had caused that legend to gain almost mythical proportions. This was due to the fact that neither of them even had to glance at each other, they sometimes even finished each others sentences despite not even being in the same room as each other. Them doing that had one time freaked out several enemy Shinobi when they were in interrogation, Sakumo had often allowed Kushina to speak for both of them rather than talking himself.

That fact had showed in Sakumo's will when he left her as executor of it with only a note that said, _'you know me best, partner, you'd know better than even me what I want done with my legacy.'_   The only part of his will that she hadn't been able to dictate were certain things he had willed to her and her alone, that was due to the fact that he knew she would protest that she needn't have them. One of which happened to be the full custody of his son, the one thing he had given her that she hadn't wanted to protest, the custody was to be shared with Minato Namikaze. He had left almost everything he owned to his son or, as Kushina put it, his greatest achievement and creation.

Kushina then bade her ancestors farewell and cooed to Cassiopeia, "lets go get you back to your mom and dad, I'm fairly sure they will want you with them for breakfast." With that said she carried the dark haired child back to the Head Table, she cheerfully ignored the gaping first years as she plopped the girl in front of Sirius and Severus as she chirped, " I believe this child is yours. Enjoy your breakfast," with that said she had turned around and stalked over to the Gryffindor Table, she then sat down between Dean and Seamus.

The first years of all four houses had been briefed on the only Student Head of House as well as their only seventh year Professor. Many of them were already in awe over the legend of the Girl Who Lived, so all the red heads accomplishments had merely thrown fuel onto an already blazing fire.

After the class schedules had been passed out the seventh years were pleasantly surprised to find that their schedules had stayed pretty much the same from last year, with the exception of the times that said classes were held and the order they were held in. But the classes were still on the same days of the week so they wouldn't have to memorize where they were supposed to be. During the summer the trio had been tested for their masteries in their Transfigurations, Defense and Potions, all three passed the tests with flying colors, for the potions test they only had to brew a potion for the examiner. The test for Defense was to put them through the Auror graduation test, each were graded on how well they did, Kushina got the best score while Ron got the second best and Hermione got the least score. However, even Hermione had achieved a very high score, even better than some of the Aurors that were on the force, in fact Rufus all but begged the trio to become Aurors when they graduated Hogwarts. The three had passed the Transfiguration test with ease when the examiner found out that they were capable of the Animagus transformation. All transfiguration masters and mistresses were required to become Animagus to pass the final test to gain their mastery of the subject. Very few people who were incapable of the transformation were drawn to the subject so rarely was there a transfiguration Master or Mistress without a form to shift into.

However, due to their NEWT scores in those three subjects all three had far more free time than the other students, Hermione would fill that time with a combination of studying and spending time with Kenpachi. Ron would use it to figure how he wanted to spend the rest of his life or if he wanted to pursue a further field of study until he could make up his mind. When asked about how she would spend her free time, Kushina had snarked, "oh yeah, I'll have tons free time, what why my duties as a Quidditch Captain, teacher of the Shinigami Arts class as well as being Head Guard to the King of Heaven."

Everyone around her had given her conceding nods when she had muttered, "I took and passed those NEWT's so I could have to do all my duties," she had walked away muttering darkly about the bane of paperwork. She hadn't bothered to mention her mission to bring the Dork Lord before the King for judgment, nor her worry over her son nor even the diplomatic functions her position as the Head Guard obtained with regained contact with the Seireitei in her grumblings.

When she walked away Hermione had called out, "when you're done with your lesson plans, Kenpachi wanted to spar with you on the pitch!" Kushina waved her hand absently in acknowledgement as she walked out the door while crunching on an apple.

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Poppy took one look at the pair on the field and sighed as she muttered, "I better have the House elves prepare the infirmary for those two, Kushina's tense and irritated. Kenpachi never leaves the field until she's relaxed ever since she found out that sparring is a way of relieving tension for her."

Poppy was right, she would be seeing the pair since the two hadn't been able spar for almost three weeks, as such both had quite a bit of tension to get rid of quickly and easily. The younger years had been warned that the pairs spars could get pretty violent but they were free to leave at anytime they wanted. The first years that is, the first years had been informed that the pair were friends and that they thoroughly enjoyed their spars together much like most kids liked playing games together.

As soon as Kenpachi had stepped foot onto the field he had ripped off his eye patch, he could tell that she wanted to beat something up badly so he knew that they would be using Hakuda first off. As such he wasn't surprised when her very first action was to use shunpo to get behind him and attempt to deliver a round house kick to his right shoulder. Kenpachi had blocked the blow easily and almost punched her in the stomach but she dodged the blow at the last minute, their spar continued in much the same vein with each of them dodging a blow before striking at the other.

Finally Kushina had leapt back and summoned Thanatos' shikai while Kenpachi unsheathed Sekhmet before he unsealed her, they had stared at each other for several long moments before their weapons met with a resounding clang. Kenpachi's blade was caught by the spines of the handle, after growling at each other they jerked back, unlinking their weapons violently. They then bared their teeth in a parody of a grin before they moved so fast that only a fellow shinigami or an Arrancar could see them, it still amazed Coyote that the pair didn't usually use shunpo in a spar. What was being used below was pure speed, well make that pure speed enhanced by Reiatsu, or in Kushina's case, Reiatsu, Magic and Chakra.

By the time the pair had become visible to most of the watchers, both of their shirts had been ripped along with their pants and they also sported shallow lacerations along the shoulders as well as along the rips in their clothes. The pair weren't even panting in exertion as they stared at each other with a blatant look of challenge on their faces before Kushina summoned her other Zanpakuto in it's shikai form. The pair lunged at each other again with delighted laughter issuing from them both, the laugh echoed around the pitch as the only statement of their enjoyment of the fight. Hermione had merely shook her head fondly at the pair's antics as well as their gleeful enjoyment in beating each other up before she went back up to the school to study.


	11. Chapter Ten: Of First lessons, Meetings and Tombs!

**Chapter Ten:** _Of First lessons, Meetings and Tombs!_

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After her spar with Kenpachi and the two of them had been treated for their injuries, Kushina had gone up to her office to grab her bag before she headed to Herbology. When she reached the greenhouses she had found the other seventh years waiting for Professor Sprout, the kind woman quickly appeared with a soft smile as she said, "come along. You all have a special project this year and I want to show you what you'll be working with this year."

With that said she led them to the newest greenhouse, she opened the door and gestured for them to proceed her into the large building. Unlike the other greenhouses this one didn't hold plants yet, instead there were individual work stations while along the walls were the racks for plants and pots. Once everyone was inside, Madam Sprout walked over to the only work station with a large bag on it, she reached into and pulled out a seed the size of the golden snitch.

The students all raised an eyebrow in shock, or eyebrows if they were incapable of just raising one, at the size of the seed before they listened with rapt attention to Professor Sprout. "These are quite special seeds due to the fact that they don't all become the same plant, instead when properly cared for they will produce a plant from the desires of the person caring for them. Your only project for this year is to turn this seed into a plant," she gave them all a firm stare as she said, "I fully expect all of you to manage this project as you are all seventh years now. Thus you should be able to manage a minor project such as this."

She then walked around to the tables and placed a single seed in front of each student, she then instructed them in how to begin the seed germination cycle. She then watched as the group began to follow her orders, she kept a careful eye on her favorites but also ensured that no one was struggling with the project.

Kushina easily brought her magic to the surface to coat her palms she rolled the seed between her palms before she placed it gently in the pot of soil. However, unlikely some of her classmates she had used a spell to clear her right hand before she cut her palm and allowed her blood to pool around the seed in the depression. After a few moment she healed her palm with a softly spoken spell, before she put more soil on top of the blood and seed. When the Professor didn't reprimand her for her actions, several others in the class followed her example with the seed.

Everyone in the class who had taken the Shinigami Arts class had no trouble with feeding their magic to the seed since Kushina had taught them how to pull their magic from their core just like a ninja would their chakra from their coils. As the last person had placed their potted seed on the shelf labeled with their name everyone heard a booming roar with a high pitched scream following shortly afterward. Kushina's brow had furrowed as she muttered, "that was Parkinson, but that roar didn't come from Emilio, he's still on Elysian isle…"

The class then raced outside to find Pansy cowering away from a large blue serpentine dragon that was snarling at her form a coiled position, a woman darted onto the scene and placed her hand on the dragons nose as she murmured soothingly to it. Shortly after she arrived the dragon uncoiled slightly from it's defensive position, as it did Draco raced over to the pair from where he had exited Hogwarts. The blond ignored Pansy lying on the ground to dart under a coil, as he did he had called out, "Astoria, are you alright? What did she do to you," they had all raised an eyebrow when they realized that he hadn't asked her where the dragon had come from.

"No, I'm not alright," Astoria snarled with a growl as she became visible from where she was leaning against the dragons side with her right arm hanging limply as blood dripped from her arm and off her fingers. Her left hand was pressed against her shoulder where a gash was bleeding sluggishly, she glared at the other girl as she snarled, "she hit me with a cutting curse. If Leviathan hadn't managed to have his scales coat my torso my wound have been more severe than it is!"

At that comment Draco and the woman joined Astoria in glaring at the seventh year before the blond man sneered at her before he said, "you attacked my betrothed? Know this, Pansy, I will be sending your father a letter about this," his silver eyes flashed as he helped Astoria toward the infirmary. "I'll also be informing him that any and all ties between out two families is to be considered irrevocably severed due to your actions against my mate."

Kushina snickered at the way Draco possessively spat out that tidbit of information, thankfully Kushina and all those descended of the Black family hadn't been taught Astoria all about the odd and rather possessive habits that Black's exhibited toward their soul mates. As such the blond haired blue eyed sixth year wasn't offended by his possessive yet protective actions and words. Pansy, on the other hand, had paled drastically, there was an ancient contract between the two families that called for extensive reparations to be made to either family if one of them broke the contract. Unfortunately for Pansy, one of the few things that could automatically sever the contract was to endanger the line of the other and it was well known now that those of the Black bloodline who didn't take the potion would never lie with anyone other than their mate.

By attacking Astoria with the hope of her death she had endangered the line of Malfoy meaning that the house of Parkinson would have to pay the extremely high reparation for her doing so. That was very unfortunate since it was a very high price indeed and would probably require the Parkinson's to empty just over half of their vaults just to pay it. As such every pureblood knew that Pansy's father would be very vexed to be informed of his daughters stupidity and actions, it would be well within his right as the head of her family to marry her to another purebloodwithout her consent to regain the loss of the money that she had caused.

As Draco assisted his girlfriend on her trip to the infirmary, the dragon had shifted into a man with blue hair, gold eyes and was wearing only a pair of sea-blue pants. The dragon had draped his left arm over the woman's shoulders before he had sneered at Pansy before he said scathingly, "let us leave, my dear, the sight of this wretch is beginning to nauseate me." The woman smiled and silently led the human form of the dragon away from the scene, they headed in the same direction as Astoria and Draco had gone.

Kushina snorted before she said in a wry tone, "I guess I've been teaching those two far too well…" She then walked away from the gaping group, Hermione and Ron shared a look, one of long familiarity of their friends actions, before they followed her with a shake of their heads.

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A dark haired man made his way toward Obito and Rin's usual sparring area, however upon reaching said area he overheard Obito whining and promptly turned around. Rin had a look of long suffering on her face, she had heard this kind of complaining a thousand times before and she'd probably keep hearing it a thousand times more until Obito saw Kakashi again. The dark eyed man had ignored her expression as he said, "I'm really bored Rin, can't the King give us something to do? If I perfect anymore of those jutsu's that Kakashi keeps learning I'm going to go crazy! I'm just glad that I only learn the jutsu's he copy's and not anything else, not to mention the fact that I can cut off the link between our minds if I couldn't I don't think I'd be as sane as I am!"

At that statement Rin had mouthed to herself, ' _sane? Since when have you been sane, Obito?'_

Once again her teammate ignored her actions and continued to talk, "speaking of the silver haired scarecrow, I rather miss him, don't you miss him, Rin?" He didn't even allow her to answer before he began chattering again without pausing for a breath, "I'm happy that Kakashi finally got around to doing something about that crush of hi-"

He was abruptly cut off when Rin had finally had enough of his continuous complaining/talking and did something about it. Obito had froze in shock when Rin had gripped his Shihakusho and slammed him against the wall before she kissed him, when the brown haired woman pulled away the Uchiha had a dazed look on his face. "Are you ever going to do something about your crush on me or am I going to have to do everything myself," Rin asked with a growl as she continued to pin him to the wall.

After a rather short amount of time Obito had reacted to her words by reversing their positions, however, he had slid his right thigh between her legs as he kissed her. Although she had been startled at first Rin had quickly relaxed into the kiss and began to guide his somewhat clumsy kiss into something a bit more smooth and practiced. As the kiss turned into a make out session, Rin had wrapped one of her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. When they broke apart for air Obito had asked from in-between kisses placed upon her throat, "is this me doing something enough or are you going to take it back into your own hands?"

She laughed as she threaded her fingers through his hair and murmured as she pulled him back up to her lips so she could kiss him more, "yes, I rather like this something that you're doing. Now, keep doing it or you'll make me very upset and I know you don't want to do that." She pinned him with a stare as she stated more than asked, "now do you," he had quickly shaking his head negatively in a vigorous fashion before he returned to his previous activity.

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In the land of Rivers, a man and woman were seated at a table in a tea shop, the pair were listening in on a conversation between a small group from a caravan camped near the town. The man had a bemused expression on his face as he realized just who they were speaking of, "can you believe that we're being escorted by the child of Konoha's Crimson Blade? I mean she's legendary, almost mythical in some ways and from what I've heard not too many people, Shinobi or otherwise would ever even contemplate attacking her!"

The man's companion had nodded in agreement before he had muttered, "if she was anything like her son then I get just why they wouldn't." The man then huffed a soft laugh before he took a drink of his tea then said in a thoughtful tone, "I wonder just who his father is, none of his team mentioned a name. They had no problem stating his mothers name but avoided even mentioning a hint of his fathers name, all they were willing to state was that Naruto-San resembles his father closely."

The first man had shrugged as he said, "who knows. What I want to know is why didn't anyone now that the last Uchiha was a girl," as he said that he had raised an eyebrow at him with a smirk.

At that both Konan and Pein glanced at each other in shock, Itachi certainly never mentioned the fact that his baby sibling was a girl, within or outside their group. After the two men had left the tea shop to return to their caravan the two old friends had headed back to their base. As they did Konan said, "that conversation was certainly interesting at least in terms of information, wasn't it, Pein?" She then raised an eyebrow at him inquisitively as she said, "you've been contemplating something for some time, care to tell me just what that is?"

Pein snorted before he said softly, "indeed it was interesting, I can understand Itachi's reluctance to speak of his younger siblings gender and keep it a secret from everyone. However I have to wonder just why Konoha is keeping the parentage of Kushina-Sans child a secret for. Whoever his father is he must have many enemies who would wish his son dead, I can't think of many of Kushina's enemies who'd be willing to harm her legacy…"

Konan nodded as she murmured, "indeed, neither can I, from what I can recall from meeting her, Kushina-san had the respect of most of her enemies." as the pair entered the Akatsuki headquarters they found Hidan and Kakuzu arguing over Hidan's recklessness in battle, not because Kakuzu was worried about his partner but since he hated having to patch up the scythe wielder back up.

"Ouch, watch where you're sticking that," Hidan exclaimed as Kakuzu was sewing up a gash along his stomach.

Kakuzu scowled at the pale haired missing nin from under his mask as he glared darkly up at him before he growled at the other man "if you didn't get cut up so much I wouldn't have to keep sewing you back together and it wouldn't hurt so much!"

Konan held in a giggle at that while Pein shook his head, it never failed to amuse the Akatsuki leader that his partner though that three of the pairs of their group were cute together. Unfortunately, whenever he insisted that they weren't couples, at least where Kakuzu and Hidan were concerned Pein wasn't too sure about the other four men. Konan was adamant that Itachi and his partner were more than mere work partners, she was less sure about Deidara and Sasori since the puppet user was also a puppet while Deidara was a teenager and thus subject to his hormones.

As they watched Kakuzu tied off his last stitch as he said, "I ought to let you sew up your own wounds next time you're stupid enough to charge into battle without me!" The two men didn't seem to notice their audience since Kakuzu's eyes had softened as he ran his fingers through the muscled man's hair. He had murmured softly as he did, "I know that you're basically immortal Hidan, but knowing that doesn't stop me from worrying about you."

The silver haired Jashin worshiper had at first turned his face away from the bounty hunter as he huffed in annoyance but at the Kakuzu's softly spoken words and gentle touch he glanced at him from under his eyelashes. Upon seeing the worried look in the elder man's eyes he sighed before he said softly, "I'm sorry Kakuzu but that's just the way I am. I have no head for strategy like you do," as he had spoken he had ran his fingers along the older man's right cheek.

Kakuzu had closed his green eyes at the light caress before he placed his forehead against Hidan's and said as he stared into his partners amethyst eyes, "I hate having to hide what I feel for you." The former Waterfall ninja then nuzzled his partners cheek as he had murmured, "please, for the sake of my peace of mind, please try to keep from rushing into battle. All it takes is one lucky idiot to manage the impossible, after all what would happen if we ever run into another Jashin worshipper!"

The silver haired man rolled his eyes as he stated in a bland tone as if he had said it a hundred times before, "nothing would happen except for us trading stories. After all we would both be Jashin worshippers and thus comrades in arms and if worse comes to worse I highly doubt that any other worshipper has dedicated themselves to Jashin as much as I have!" He then rolled his eyes as he said in exasperation, "the methods for obtaining my type of immortality is very difficult and not one usually undertaken by my fellow Jashin worshippers, I'm the exception not the rule Kakuzu."

Soon after he said that he glanced up and paled as he noticed the bemused stares of his leaders before he blushed bright red then hid his face in the crook of the baffled Kakuzu's neck as he groaned in embarrassment. "What's wrong, Hidan," asked the green eyed bounty hunter worriedly. He glanced over at the door when Konan had cleared her throat pointedly, to the extreme amusement of the only woman of the group the eighty seven year old had closed his eyes with a groan as he realized that the pair had to have been standing there for some time.

Both embarrassed men looked up and stared in shock when Konan had said in a smug tone, "I told you they cared for one another so pay up Pein." The pair goggled when their leader handed over a large bill as he grumbled about how it was unfair of her to use her woman's intuition to cheat on bets.

They goggled even more when Pein stopped his grumbling to stare at Konan as he asked, "do I have to pay you for our bets concerning the other four now or after we confirm that you're right about them as well."

"After it is confirmed is fine," Konan stated serenely as she placed the note into her money purse.

Hidan and Kakuzu goggled as they realized that their leaders had been making bets concerning the emotional connections of their fellow Akatsuki members. To Hidan's shock his partner spoke up to ask, "in that case, can I make a bet," once he had said that he had held up a note. "I bet that Kisame and Itachi are together with not only a sexual relationship but an emotional one as well," he scrunched up his nose but then held up a different note. "As for Sasori and Deidara, I cannot see how they could have a sexual relationship so I'm going with a pure emotional attachment," Konan nodded, the main reason behind Pein's disbelief over her assertion that the pair were together stemmed from the fact that they couldn't possibly have an emotional connection.

An hour after Kakuzu and Konan had finalized the details of the bet, Sasori arrived along with his partner, Deidara had his ever present smirk on his face while Sasori was again hidden inside one of his puppet shields. "Good afternoon," Pein said as they sat down at the table beside each other with Sasori on Deidara's right, it had been after an odd mission that they had started sitting that way. Two minutes later, Kisame and Itachi walked in the room both men gave Pein a short nod in greeting, he nodded back as he said, "how does your mission fare so far?"

"Satisfactorily," Itachi stated blandly before he said, "our original selves are near Konoha, they are merely waiting until the Chuunin exams to go into Fire country fully."

After he said that Pein had nodded before he gestured for Deidara to speak since it was obvious that the blond had a question on his mind, the former Iwa nin fidgeted before he asked, "why was this meeting called, Leader-Sama?"

Pein interlaced his fingers together as he sighed before he said, "I have called you all here to give you a choice," at that Deidara had raised an eyebrow at him. "I've recently discovered that my family is not as dead as I previously believed, I have also discovered that if I continue with the original plan I will lose what little is left of it." As he said that Konan had placed her hand on Pein's shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze, he continued by saying, "what I'm about to tell you has been a secret since the reinvention of the Akatsuki." He stared them all in the eye as he said, "I'm not the one who's brilliant idea it was to use the tailed beasts as a way to bring about peace. The true man behind that idea was a man that claimed to be Madara Uchiha," at that declaration Itachi's eyes had flashed red and he bared his teeth in a snarl.

Everyone, except Kisame that is, were baffled when the normally calm and stoic man fad stood up as he growled, "that Oath Breaker formerly of the Uchiha clan is still alive?"

Pein blinked before he asked, "what do you mean by Oath Breaker, Itachi," the others of the group were curious about that as well and stared at the teen in intent focus.

Itachi sat back down before he said, "the Uchiha Clan has a Sister clan, to be technical the Sister Clan is actually the Mother Clan of the Uchiha but I digress, in any case the Uchiha clan swore to never raise a hand nor a weapon against a member of our sister clan. Madara Uchiha broke that oath at least twice if not more, as such the entire clan disowned him and declared him to be an Oath Breaker, if we could have stripped him of the Sharingan we would have!" As he glanced away he had muttered, "besides the fact that he attacked two different members of our sister clan he also killed his brother and made it appear to be the fault of another. He did it only in the hopes of driving the person he framed, who was also the person that his brother was in love with, into despair over his brothers death, it didn't work."

As Itachi had grumbled angrily about the ancestor of his clan, Sasori had asked, "just what choice are you giving us Leader-Sama?"

Pein sighed before he said, "I'm giving you the choice of leaving Madera's Akatsuki and joining the one that I'm remaking, I plan to ally myself with the village that my last relation lives in and calls home. I'm offering you the choice of coming with me when I offer my alliance to them, I won't join the village but I can no longer be it's enemy." He glanced at Itachi as he said softly, "it will be hardest for Itachi to decide since that Village is Konoha."

"No choice to be made, Leader-Sama," he said as he stared at the older man, "I may hate Konoha's council for it's order but I still love my home. I will ally myself with it again if need be, I cannot serve under the Oath Breaker any longer!"

When everyone glanced at Kisame, the shark summoner stared back at them defensively before he asked, "what? I think it's fairly obvious that the only Uchiha I owe first loyalty to is that one." As he had spoken he had pointed at a much calmer Itachi before he had sat back with a huff as Itachi stared at them as if to ask, ' _you honestly expected otherwise,'_ with a raised eyebrow.

Pein then glanced at the other four men, Deidara rolled his visible eye as he said, "I ain't going to be loyal to any bastard that I have yet to meet, so I'm going to follow you, Leader-Sama." He then glanced at the puppet user as he asked casually, "what about you Sasori no Danna, are you coming with us or staying with Madara?"

His partner glanced at him before he said, "what do you think I'm going to do, I'm with you, you explosion happy blond!" As he said that he smacked Deidara upside the head as he shook his own, he then sighed before he glanced at the last pair as he asked, "what about you two, are you staying or going?"

The pair glanced at each other with green eyes staring into deep purple eyes, that were so dark that they almost looked black sometimes, to the rest of the group it appeared that the pair were having an entirely silent conversation. After a moment the pair looked back up at the group as Kakuzu said, "we're with you, for now," he added thoughtlessly as Hidan had nodded in agreement to his partners' words.

At that everyone had relaxed and Konan breathed a sigh of relief, she had a feeling that the six wouldn't want to stay with Madara when they discovered that he was the one behind the kidnapping plan of the Jinchuuriki. Her head shot up when Sasori had declared softly, "in that case I see no more reason to hide what I look like," everyone except Deidara started at him with puzzlement on their faces. With several loud clicks sections of the puppet pulled back and revealed a young looking man with short red hair and wide brown eyes that appeared to be serious.

Hidan goggled at the puppet user as he muttered, "damn now he looks just as young as his partner, if anyone every realizes that most of our members are rather young or at least young looking we're in trouble."

Pein huffed a laugh at that before he said with a smile, "Itachi, Kisame," once the pair glanced up at him from across the table he said, "since we're no longer following Madara's plan for the Jinchuuriki, your mission has changed. Instead of kidnapping the Jinchuuriki," he smirked as he said that with dancing eyes, "I want you two to guard him and his team." He then turned to Sasori and Deidara as he said firmly, "I want the two of you to guard the Jinchuuriki of Suna, his seal is the most vulnerable of them all." He then leaned back and asked, "Deidara, how vulnerable do you think the Gobi and Yonbi are in Iwa, are they safe enough without supervision?"

The blue eyed blond had shrugged as he said, "those two are about as safe as the Hachibi and the Nibi are in Cloud, we already sealed the Sanbi so the only two we need to worry about are the Rokubi and the Shichibi. The Jinchuuriki of the Rokubi is a nuke nin, it stands to reason that he'd be able to take care of himself if need be, the only one we're uncertain about is the Jinchuuriki of Waterfall," he ended with a scowl.

After three hours of discussion the six men were sent off to guard their respective Jinchuuriki the two clones quickly made their way close enough to send their memories to their original selves before they dispelled. Their respective owners goggled at each other before they had shrugged, Kisame continued to rub at Itachi's swollen ankles and aching feet.

Hidan watched in amusement as Kakuzu stomped in front of him as the elder man grumbled about how he didn't want to go back home, after all he'd left it for a very good reason. Taigakure was boring or so the bounty hunter had wailed, of course at that comment Hidan had smirked and called out, "don't worry Kakuzu, I'll make sure that you aren't bored while we're there!"

Kakuzu glanced at his partner before he had muttered under his breath, "that's precisely what I'm afraid of… At least we won't have to sneak into the village like Deidara and Sasori will have to since unlike Waterfall, Suna doesn't have any of our hidden bases."

Meanwhile, the pair in question had quickly reached Suna and Sasori had his spy open the gate for them, the two men disguised themselves easily by Deidara using the jutsu that Itachi's clone had shown them before he had left. Sasori on the other hand, had merely put on another puppet shell so he looked different than he normally did, the pair were masquerading as a newlywed couple on a long honeymoon.

The pair watched in amusement as Itachi's baby sibling all but adopted the Jinchuuriki of Suna, Deidara had been surprised when Sasori had started laughing when Konoha's Jinchuuriki had begun to berate the old woman. As Sasori snickered he had managed to mutter, "that boy defiantly takes after his mother in the loudness department!"

Both Nuke nins had goggled when Sasuke had used the hawks to leave Suna with, they had long gotten used to Gaara walking around with a fledgling falcon on his shoulder. Not to mention the way an occasional cat would jump onto Kankuro's shoulder. The first time that Kankuro had used Karasu in conjunction with the Black Ant the red headed puppet user had gaped in shock. He later expressed pride in how his creations were still in use by another puppet user. Deidara was amused by how his partner would twitch with the urge to go show Kankuro a trick or two about said creations.

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Amelia sat back and watched as Yahiko ran the Department of Magical Law Enforcement employees into the ground, only a few of them were able to keep up with the fast man. She had the feeling that all of her people would now respect her choice to have Yahiko as her only guard, he wasn't even using magic to defend himself all he was using was speed and Hado. This fact was startling the hell out of her former subordinates since he was dodging all of their attacks with ease, thus allowing some of their spells to hit their fellow people. Only two Aurors had held their own against the ninja turned shinigami, that pair was Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymphadora Tonks, even after three hours the pair were still going strong, while some of their co-workers had exhausted themselves.

Unknown to Amelia and the pair concerned, the reason that they were doing so well was due to their usual close positions to Jushiro Ukitake and Nanao Isa. The two Shinigami's in question were on the sidelines cheering on the pair the duel ended in a draw with the two Aurors holding the body guard at wand point. Yahiko on the other hand had a pair of knives at their throats, "well done," the orange haired male finally said as he pulled the blades back. Much to the former Akatsuki leaders surprise and pleasure, the pair didn't put their wands away when he pulled back his blades, instead they merely lowered their wands but kept them to where all they had to do was a simple movement to have them pointing back at him.

"However," he drawled as he glanced over the room with a sneer, "the rest of you were pathetic! And you all call yourselves members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," he snorted derisively as he looked away from them and back to Amelia. He rolled his eyes as he said with a scowl, "I hereby request permission to train them properly, Minister Bones, as they obviously need the training."

After a long moment of silence, Amelia finally said decisively, much to the horror of the department, "permission granted, Yahiko, train them to your hearts content and in any way you like." She then pinned him with a stare as she ordered ,"but only so long as it doesn't interfere with their duties to the department."

At that order he sketched a bow to her as he had murmured softly, "as you wish, my Lady Bones, as you wish." However, the group shivered in fear when he turned his gaze upon them as he purred darkly, "I'll have them whipped into shape in no time…" He resisted the urge to cackle loudly in glee as well as rub his hands together as he had spoken he didn't want his new toys to faint from fear before he really got to play with them.

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Meanwhile in the Seireitei, Yoruichi woke up and padded on silent feet over to her son's cradle, he blinked open his dark eyes, before he could cry out unhappily she had scooped him up. She had then rubbed his back soothingly as she murmured softly, "shh, don't wake up your mother, she's a busy bee after all…" She swiftly but carefully changed her son's diaper before she took him over to the rocking chair and softly sang her son back to sleep. After his eyes had fluttered shut she had brushed her finger against his cheek as she rose up to place him back into his cradle.

When she returned to the futon, Soifon had curled back up against her as she asked sleepily, "is he back to sleep Yoruichi?"

Yoruichi nuzzled the top of her bumblebee's head as she had murmured "he's asleep again, rest my Soifon, you have a division to run, I don't anymore." The smaller woman muttered back incoherently as she somehow nestled deeper into the older woman's side. The golden eyed woman smiled fondly at her before she pressed a light kiss on the other woman's forehead before she too slipped back into slumber. As she did Yoruichi had murmured, "I do love you, my dear little bee and I swear I'll never leave you behind again if I can help it."

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Monday morning at breakfast, everyone was surprised to see Kisuke show up, he had walked over to where Kushina was braiding Luna's hair and her eyes lit up at the sight of her husband. As he sat down beside her, he had pressed a kiss upon her lips before he had murmured with a soft smile, "hello to you, my wife."

She giggled happily, a fact that caused almost all of the other houses to goggle at her in shock since Kushina never giggled, at all. Cackle, chuckle and down right roar with laughter, yes but giggle, never. Her gold eyes glittered happily as she said softly, "greetings to thee, uchi, on this fine and lovely morning," as she had spoken her fingers were deftly weaving Luna's fine blond strands. As she tied off the braid she had asked him with a fond smile, "what brings you by my school, my dearest crazy love, not that I don't enjoy you dropping by…" She had trailed off before she pressed a light kiss to Luna's forehead and sent the younger girl back to her own house table, after doing that she had turned to her husband as she raised an eyebrow at him.

Kisuke had chuckled as he nuzzled her temple before he said with a mischievous gleam to his blue-grey eyes, "Albus was kind enough to send me a copy of your class schedule so I could come visit without interrupting your classes. So I'm here to steal you away until it's time for you to begin teaching the Shinigami Arts class," at that she blinked slightly in shock.

A moment later though, her eyes narrowed before she asked, "does breakfast feature in your plans or shall I eat here," she had raised an eyebrow at him inquiringly as she had spoken.

"I was planning to have the two of us eat here for breakfast but I have reservations for lunch and dinner," he answered as he placed some of her favorite breakfast items on a plate. He had then placed the plate in front of her and gestured for her to begin eating while he placed bacon, eggs, toast and two pancakes on a plate for himself.

After they had eaten the pair waved goodbye to everyone before they left Hogwarts, once they had left the wards, Kisuke had pulled her close to him and side-along apparated her to their first destination. When she had opened her eyes from where she had closed them upon his request, she had looked around and her eyes widened in shock at the sight of the circus in front of her. Kisuke's eyes twinkled with delight at the surprised yet delighted smile on her face. "Love, you've brought me to the circus," she whispered with a grin pleased satisfaction.

He chuckled as he said, "yes, I did, I remembered how you used to love the traveling entertainers of the elemental countries and I figured that the circus would be a close enough equivalent."

All around them were the sounds of a circus, she could hear the sounds of not only the trumpets of the elephants but the low roars of the lions and tigers as well as the sounds of the horses. He pulled her inside of the big top with a grin and they quickly found seats that were near the ringside but not two near. The pair watched and cheered at the acts, although inwardly they were absently critiquing the performers of the fire breathers, the contortionists, the acrobats and the knife throwers. A hazard of being a Shinobi, however the pair ignored their internal monologues to enjoy the show of them with grins and laughter.

Kushina had to resist howling with laughter at the comments from some of the snake act, most of them were muttering about trying something different instead of the same old routine. However, since no one at the circus could speak Parseltongue, they had no idea that they were boring the snakes utterly and completely. Kushina made a mental note to see if she could visit the snake handler to see if she could be able to negotiate a different show so the snakes didn't get so bored too often.

After the final act and her talk with the snake performer, Kisuke side-along apparated her again, this time when they reappeared they were in an alley, he took her hand and led her out onto the sidewalk. They eventually stopped in front of a discreet building, when Kisuke went inside she had followed him, the building turned out to be a restaurant owned by Kensei. Kushina watched as her husband gave the host his name and the pair were quickly seated, as they sat down their waitress, "your wine will be brought out shortly, Mister Urahara."

The pair both ate a simple yet filling bunch of angel hair pasta with pesto basil sauce as well as a rustic stew and hearty bread, the wine was a red due to the stew containing beef. As they ate their meal they had conversed quietly and as she brought the glass of wine to her mouth to take a sip Kushina had asked softly, "what else do you have planned for us today, Kisuke?"

He smiled at her smugly before he said, "that is for me to know and you to find out, my love," after he said that he caught her hand and pressed a kiss to the pulse point in her wrist. Her arms were bare of her bracers for once, just as he didn't have his cane on him, today was a day off for them both of course they pair could still call forth their Zanpakuto but neither of them really wanted to.

His eyes twinkled as she glared at him playfully before she growled out just as playfully, "one day I'm going to surprise you when you least expect it and I won't say a word of what's going to happen!"

At that declaration he had chuckled before he said with a faint smile, "I look forward to that then." After he said that he turned their conversation to other subjects by asking, "do think that you'll have Voldemort taken care of this year?"

She rolled her eyes at the obvious change in subject before she shrugged as she said soft, "who knows. It all depends on if he directly attacks me this year or not, if he does then yes, I should be able to handle him this year. It's not as if he's even close to being a treat like some of the Shinobi I've faced, if I wasn't a Shinobi reincarnated into a shinigami then into a witch I might have had a lot more trouble to deal with concerning him."

Kisuke chewed a spoonful of his stew and swallowed it before he said, "good, I'm rather looking forward to returning to Konoha one day. Although," he bit his lower lip thoughtfully before he continued, "I've yet to figure out just how we're going to explain how we came from the dead…"

He watched as his wife's brow furrowed in thought before she leaned forward as she said, "I plan to have Kurama tell Naruto to use the second version of the Impure World Resurrection Technique that Uncle 'Rama created after Grandpa Hashi's fight with Madara. Remember, it tugs on the souls of the users closest kin and asks if said souls would like to come back, most souls don't answer since they simply don't remember. When we feel the tug al l we'll have to do is answer the call," she said with a triumphant grin.

Kisuke hummed lightly before he nodded and said, "your idea could work but what about Rodolphus, Rabastan and Isshin? All three of them remember their past lives, if they feel the tug they may unconsciously answer the call from a clan member and blood kin. Isshin might be able to resist but I don't know if the Lestrange brothers could, even if you tell them of our plan," he pointed out gently.

She sighed as she nodded in resignation before she murmured, "I know, however I just don't see how they would believe us if we appear and say, _'we made a deal with the shinigami. And that deal was to take care of a problem of his, in return for doing so he has allowed us to return to life!'_ Yeah, I can see that going over real well," she said sardonically as she rolled her eyes.

He gave her a conceding nod as he murmured, "you do present a fine argument, Love, I can't see them buying that tale either. As much as I hate to do that in order to return to Konoha," he ended with a wry twist to his lips, an expression somehow halfway between a smile and a grimace.

She had nodded again as she soaked up the last drops of stew in her bowl with her last piece of bread before she said, "my thoughts exactly. At least with the jutsu we'd have an excuse ready as to how we came back from the dead and since the jutsu is only able to call back the blood kin who choose to return, it's safe enough for Naruto to use." Her eyes flashed hotly and unknowingly to her, took on the appearance that they always had when she was angered around those she trusted implicitly. The blond man had ignored the look automatically due to the many years of practice from his life as Minato, he listened as she said, "thanks to that blasted night with Mizuki, Naruto does have that jutsu memorized."

After that last comment of hers the pair fell into silence and the two declined dessert, Kisuke paid for their bill before he led her back outside and back to the alley. They used the alley to apparate to their next destination on their list, or rather on Kisuke's list since Kushina had absolutely no idea where they were going to end up next. When they next reappeared they were standing in front of the entrance to the Valley of the Kings, a pair of workers noticed them and after a short conversation with Kisuke the two went off to find their boss. At her puzzled look Kisuke had murmured into her ear, "I arranged a private tour of the Valley for you, only the magical workers are here since they can cast cooling charms on themselves. The name of their boss is Zahi Hawass, he's the head of the Egyptian Archeologists as well as the Head of the Cairo Museum and the Valley of the Kings, thus in this valley his word is final," with that a dark skinned man had approached them.

He was wearing clothes suitable to the desert heat, he had shook their hands as he said, "welcome to the Valley of the Kings" he then gestured for them to walk alongside him as they headed further into the valley. As they walked the Egyptian had glanced over at Kushina and said, "I understand that you speak Parseltongue. Would you be wiling to see if you could translate a tomb for us?" At her curious expression he had clarified what he was asking of her, "there is a tomb in the valley, the few Egyptian Hieroglyphics state that it had been carved by the King's consort. Actually the true translation of her title is _'She who is the highest in the King's heart and who commands all the serpents of the lands.'_ Due to the last part of her title it is assumed that she must have been a Parselmouth herself."

Kushina's eyes lit up and she grinned as she said cheerfully, "in that case, lead the way, Doctor Hawass, I wish to see this tomb of yours as soon as possible." He then led the pair to the tombs entrance and the gate that barred it from access by the public, he ordered the workers to open the gate and led the way into the tunnel that wound itself thorough the cliff side. The tunnel ended in a large stone door with carvings all over it, some in hieroglyphics the rest were in strange runes, funnily enough the door was locked with a metal locking mechanism. The hieroglyphics was a statement declaring who had carved the tomb and for whom it was carved for, Kushina turned to the doctor and stated, "you have never opened this tomb, have you?"

He shook his head before he said softly, "we have not yet figured out how to open it and due to the carvings we don't want to break it just to open it. We were hoping that somewhere In the carvings is hidden a clue of how to open the door," he ended with a shrug.

She then turned back to the door and ran her eyes over it, as she did she had murmured to herself in Parseltongue, finally she smirked to herself and spoke in English, "here lies the King of the Upper and Lower lands. Let anyone who enter know that if they disturb my beloved's rest then they shalt know my wrath." She then glanced over her shoulder as she said with a smirk, "the King's consort continues in this way for some more before she states, ' _to open my beloved's chamber, merely pull the knob out, turn it left for three prongs then turn it right until seven prongs have passed the point and the eight rests upon the point. Then turn the knob left once more until the third prong that passes rests upon the point once that has been done press the knob back into place. If thy have followed my instructions precisely then the door should open on it's own,'_ and that's how she ended it."

As she had spoken that she had stepped forward and had followed the written instructions of the Kings consort, after she had done so she stepped backwards to watch the door swung open. Without thinking she cast a Lumos, the ball of light hovering over the palm of her hand she then stepped inside the door in the chamber beyond was a large hall with columns holding up the stone ceiling and in the center of the hall was a statue of a woman. The statue was unusual in the fact that although her upper half was of a human woman, her lower half was that of a serpent, as she stared at the statue Kushina breathed, "a Lamia, the King's consort was no mere Parselmouth, she was a Lamia!"

At that declaration the workers along with their boss stared at her in confusion, as his wife approached the statue Kisuke softly but quickly explained just what a Lamia was and why his wife was in awe of that the deceased King was married/mated to one. Kushina had knelt to study the markings on the tail, after a moment she rose and said, "she's not a cobra or a Basilisk, that's for sure."

She then waked past the statue and gave everyone a grin as she called over her shoulder, "well, shall we go find ourselves a mummified pharaoh?"

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Four hours later, Kisuke approached a self-satisfied Kushina to their second to last destination, she blinked in shock before she had quietly exclaimed, "you brought me to the Ragnorak!"

He laughed before he nuzzled her right temple as he said, "Coyote told me that your aunt enjoyed dining here along with the dancing that they had done, thus since I know how well you delight in dancing as well as fine food, I knew you'd be happy to visit."

The couple was swiftly seated at a table in the corner and were left with a glass of white wine each as well as the promise that their appetizer would be out shortly. True to their waiters word a plate arrived holding a pile of rice which had a pile of shrimp and sauce over it. After they had feed each other all of the rice and shrimp they had begun dancing, some of the other patrons of the restaurant watched in bemusement since the pair refused to dance to the tango and the waltz but danced to all the others.

When they returned to their table from one such bout of dancing they found two plates with slices of stuffed pork tenderloin and grilled stuffed portabella mushrooms, Kisuke watched as his wife's eyes lit up with delight. However, unknown to the red haired woman, Kisuke had painstakingly taught the chef how to prepare both the pork and mushrooms as well as the dessert they would be having. Once their plates had been cleared of food they were once again on the dance floor, during one of the dances, Kisuke had signaled their waiter to bring their dessert to the table.

After the pair enjoyed their gooey pumpkin butter cake, they had one more dance before they apparated back to Hogwarts, Kisuke had walked Kushina to the front steps and kissed her lightly before he had murmured, "I'll see you later tonight, love, Albus gave me permission to stay in your rooms." With that said he had turned around and left to go to the Seireitei via the permanent Senkaimon located near Hagrid's old house, the half giants new house was halfway between the pitch and the new dragon enclosure.

When she had entered the school her fellow students raised an eyebrow at the beaming look she had upon her face and the bounce in her step. However, what had startled them the most was the choker that now encircled her neck, it was made of three snakes twined together in a complex knot while devouring their own tails. One snake had glittering onyx eyes and appeared to be made of silver, the second was made of gold while it's eyes were sapphires. The third and final snake was made a red colored metal while it's eyes were made of dove grey pearls instead of white pearls, the necklace almost seemed to be alive since it didn't restrict her breathing and appeared to move with her.


	12. Chapter Eleven: Of Past Lives and Final Confrontations!

**Chapter Eleven:** _Of Past Lives and Final Confrontations!_

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Rodolphus stared up at the Hokage monument, he blinked for several moments before he muttered to himself, "now, I know that I'm dreaming…" He then mentally sat back and relaxed since he knew that this dream was only his memories and thus the outcome of it couldn't be changed at all. As he watched himself, through his own eyes, in the memory he suddenly heard a scream filled with rage, betrayal and anguished pain, Rodolphus jolted out of his slumber and sat upright in bed.

As he panted slightly to catch his breath from the panic that the scream induced he heard the scream again and without thinking he threw himself out of bed. He raced out of his room and headed down the hall to the room that Shisui had been using during their brief visit to Elysian Isle. His brother and Isshin had poked their heads out of their room in time to see the Head of the Lestrange family race past, as Rodolphus slid to a stop in front of the door he placed his hand on the doorknob as he barked, "may Madara Uchiha burn in a thousand pits of hell!" The door swung open at the barked words to allow him through, before the door was all the way open Rodolphus had entered the room and slammed the door behind him. As the door had swung open another scream had erupted into the night, as the door slammed shut Rabastan and Isshin shrugged before they went back into their room both men knew that Rodolphus would take care of the younger man.

Rodolphus reached the bed quickly due to long strides, under the covers Shisui was tossing and turning with a grimace of pain on his, in Rodolphus' humble opinion, handsome face. He sat down beside the other man on the bed and ran his fingers through ink black hair in a soothing manner as he had murmured, "shhh, it's alright Shisui, it's just a dream." The younger man whimpered in pain as he curled up into a ball with his face away from Rodolphus, who's gaze had softened as he leaned over the Shinobi as he said softly but firmly, "wake up, Shisui."

At the wizards softly spoken demand, Shisui's dark eyes snapped open and he glanced over his shoulder directly into deep blue-grey eyes. He let out a shuddering breath before he turned over to face his wizard and curled up into a ball next to the older mans hip. Rodolphus kept up a litany of softly murmured soothing words, after a few moments of this the elder man realized that Shisui was chanting something to himself. Rodolphus frowned in puzzlement before he sharpened his hearing with his animagus abilities, his eyes widened in shock when he heard what his boyfriend was chanting.

"Why Madara? Why did you have to kill me? Why, why, why, why," he finally ended his litany with a sob and a softly murmured, "why did you have to kill me, Brother?"

Rodolphus' stared down at his boyfriend in shock and several moments later he tilted the younger man's face upward so he could stare into the younger man's watering eyes. His eyes widened even further in shock when he saw that instead of Shisui's usual Sharingan he had a much different pattern swirling in his eyes, the pattern was very familiar thanks to his past life as Tobirama Senju. Staring out from his boyfriends face were Izuna Uchiha's Sharingan, tears were flowing ceaselessly from them down the cheek of the younger man as he stared up at Rodolphus with a shattered look in his eyes. The blue-grey eyed wizard trailed the back of his fingers down the side of Shisui's right cheek, the Shinobi tilted his head into the caress, Rodolphus then said softly, "I can't answer as to why Madara killed you, Izuna. That's something that you'll have to ask him yourself, after all," he said with a wry smile, "I highly doubt that he'd answer the question if Rabastan or I ask him. You'd have a much better chance of getting a straight answer out of your former brother then we would, not by much but still…"

Shisui huffed a laugh before he had muttered with a small fond smile at the older man, "you always did have a rather bizarre sense of humor, Tobirama." As he had spoken he had leaned further into the caress that Rodolphus was giving by stroking his hand through the black locks. A breathy sigh, which quite resembled a purr to Rodolphus' ears, escaped the younger mans mouth and the older man thought to himself with a wry smile, _'I think if he ever becomes an animagus then his form will be some type of cat.'_

However at his words Rodolphus raised an eyebrow at him before he said with a note of disbelief in his voice "a bizarre sense of humor? I have a bizarre sense of humor?" He had stared down at his boyfriend with his brow furrowed before he pointed out hotly, "I'm not the man who decided to soak his older brothers favorite outfit in the brightest dye he could find before placing a genjutsu seal upon it keyed to a specific phrase. If said phrase was spoken by said brother then said genjutsu would fail no mater where said brother happened to be at the moment."

Shisui snickered as he recalled Madara's rather outraged and furious reaction to the new color of his favorite outfit and, in Izuna's humble opinion, absolutely ridiculous outfit. However both the rest of the Clan and Izuna found it extremely amusing to see the normally arrogant man brought down a peg or two. His eyes faded back to their normal black as he said with amusement clear in his voice, "no, you're right, you weren't the person who did that. You were the person who invented jutsu's to mock both objects and people," Rodolphus conceded the younger mans point with a cant of his head.

After several moments of resting against the elder man's hip, "Rodolphus," Shisui whispered softly in a questioning tone, the older man hummed softly to let his boyfriend know that he was listening. So Shisui continued by asking, "would you bond with me? I never want to leave our souls meeting to chance again, we were extremely lucky that Kushina knew both of us and that she wanted both of us at her wedding or we would have never met."

At Shisui's question Rodolphus hand had froze in mid motion as it carded through the younger man's hair, he had started the motion back up as Shisui explained the reasoning behind the abrupt question. As he was about to tell the younger man that he'd gladly bond with him, Shisui had said without much thought, "after all, I fell in love with you long before I remembered my life as Izuna Uchiha and I was completely unaware of your past life as Tobirama. I love you as much as Izuna Uchiha loved Tobirama Senju, which is to say utterly, completely and madly," as he had murmured that the older man had tilted Shisui's head upward so he could kiss him passionately.

As he pulled back from the deep kiss Rodolphus murmured against the younger man's cheek, "yes, I'll marry you," he watched as a delighted smile curved Shisui's swollen lips after he had said that.

Shisui then pulled the startled man under the covers with him and pinned the elder man beneath him as he gave him a rather predatory grin, Shisui nuzzled Rodolphus just above the crook of his neck as he began to unbutton the older man's shirt. He nipped the older man's neck lightly as he divested his lover of the garments covering his upper body, as he pulled back to stare his wizard in the eye Shisui said, "for the next few hours all I want to hear coming out of your mouth are moans, screams, groans or you alternatively begging and pleading for more from me." He then threaded his fingers through the long hair of his wizard before he took possession of the pinned man's mouth and kissed him for several long moments until he pulled away to ask in a firm voice, "understood," the firm voice was almost ruined by the breathlessness in it due to the kiss.

All the sudden Rodolphus had smirked up at his lover before he arched up into the younger man's weight, Shisui had straddled his hips and pinned his wrists to the bed, while his said, "I understand perfectly, my dearest Uchiha." The older man then relaxed underneath the slighter man as he surrendered to Shisui's odd, to Rodolphus anyway, desire to worship the older man's body. A shiver raced down Shisui's spine at both the way that his wizard's body had felt against his and the way he purred the words of agreement to Shisui's terms.

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Four hours later Shisui sauntered to his bathroom as he left a very satisfied Rodolphus lounging on the king sized bed, the Uchiha glanced over his shoulder with a smoldering look at the reclined wizard. "Are you going to join me for a shower or not, my lovely wizard," he purred with dancing onyx eyes. A smug look flashed across his face as Rodolphus' eyes had darkened in renewed arousal to the color of the sky just before a thunderstorm, before he got up from the bed with nary a wince to show the amount of strenuous activity the pair had put his body through during the previous four hours.

His own eyes had darkened, something that was practically impossible since his eyes were black to begin with, as the wizard had purred out as he prowled closer to the younger man, "I do believe I shall join you for that shower, my lovely one." As he had spoken he had come even closer to the Shinobi, Shisui could only label the action of his boyfriend as predatory. It was moments like this that caused Shisui to think that his boyfriends animagus form truly suited him to a tee, because the way that Rodolphus was stalking him was the same way that a wolf would stalk a wounded deer. The way that the wizards dilated eyes had focused on the Uchiha had caused Shisui's breath to hitch in his throat as his dark gaze traveled first up then down the older man's body. As it did the master of the body flicker technique had unconsciously cataloged the markings that he had left upon his boyfriends body

There was a hickey at the junction of Rodolphus right hip and thigh while a trail of bite trailed from the base of the older man's throat to right above the hickey. Covering both of his hips were hand shaped bruises from where Shisui had gripped the elder man's hips too tightly during the last time that they had coupled. The pair had rested in-between their bouts of lovemaking, it had pleasantly surprised and startled the wizard when Shisui had pinned him down and tied him down with restraints during their first bout of lovemaking.

As Shisui had memorized the marks that he had left behind to mark the older man as his and his alone, an equally smug look crossed the wizards face as he too cataloged his marks on his lover's body. There were bites and hickeys all over **his** Uchiha's body starting just below Shisui's left ear, the trail ended just above the base of Shisui's shaft. Rodolphus had taken great pains to put a large hickey over the younger man's heart, the dark eyed man's lips were still swollen from the combination of their kisses and the nips that Rodolphus had placed upon them repeatedly to silence his own loud gasping cries as Shisui had made his body sing like a well made instrument in the hands of a master.

The older man's smug look increased when Shisui had turned to turn on the water for the shower and check it's temperature, there were dark red lines all across the younger man's back. The lines went from the base of the younger mans spine all the way up to the nape of his neck. Not to mention a rather impressive hickey at the base of Shisui's neck he watched as the muscles of his lovers back moved which in turn caused the lines on his back to writhe on his pale skin. The wizard's self control snapped when Shisui bent over to check the temperature of the water coming out of the spout with a slight hiss of pleasured pain. He flicked the water to where it sprayed out of the showerhead after he had checked the temperature in order to ensure that it wasn't too hot for either of them before he gently pushed they younger man against the wall and pinned him there.

As he pinned his lover to the wall Rodolphus had purred into his ear, "my turn to worship you," he grinned at the way that Shisui had gulped in reaction to his words and tone before he shut the curtain with a flick of his wrist. His chuckle rang out when his younger lover pulled him down for a kiss that caused both of their toes to curl from the passion and lust contained within it. Both of those qualities had been tempered by how the pair had gently caressed each other's bodies in direct contradiction to the ferocity of the kiss. Shisui had smiled into the kiss as he allowed himself to go boneless in the wizard's grasp, he had silently surrendered to the demand of his lover to allow him to worship his body, even if he didn't think that his body was worthy of worship in the first place.

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As James watched his children playing together he thought idly to himself, ' _Teddy must have wanted to have a bit of his sister's hair color today,'_ the toddlers hair was red and streaked with black. It almost resembled the pelt of a tiger, the red of his hair was the exact same color as the hair of the four year old that was playing peek a boo with him. Mentally the hazel eyed man did a double take before he thought to himself, _'wait a minute, Kushina is seventeen not four!'_ His brow furrowed in thought, all the sudden he felt as if he was merely an observer and not a participant in his own body anymore, he heard a sweet voice behind him saying, "our children look quite cute together, do they not my husband?"

James felt as his body turned toward the voice, he ended up looking at a slim dark haired and eyed woman who was smiling softly at the sight of the two children playing in the yard. He then felt as he said quietly, his voice was different from his normal one which was slightly rough from inconsistent use over a period of almost fourteen years, this voice was smoother, "hello, Midoko." He then glanced back at the two children when he heard a shrill giggle from his son before he commented, "I'm glad that our children get along, Kushina seems to like Kimihiro, it's good that she doesn't resent her baby brother." He then glanced back at the woman as he said softly, "I'm sorry that I was away for the pregnancy and birth, Love, if I had known that you were pregnant I would have never left in the first place."

The woman stepped up beside him as she said firmly, "which is precisely why I didn't tell you and why I forbade anyone from informing you until the treaty had been signed. Konoha needed that treaty badly and you are on very good terms with the Kage of that village, good enough terms to allow the Kage to consider a treaty with Konoha. Besides your mother wished to speak with you and I would not have you deny her wish, especially since you look like your father but with your mother's coloration." She then poked him in the shoulder with a finger as she frowned while she asked, "what did she want to talk to you about anyway, Yoban?"

James felt himself, or rather Yoban, sigh before he softly said, "she wanted to ask me if we'd be willing to consider having Kushina become Kurama's next Jinchuuriki, she had heard that Kushina took after her in certain ways." His beloved wife gasped closed her eyes before she let out a shuddering breath and clutched at his arm tightly, he pulled her close as he reassured her softly, "we are allowed to say no to her request, Midoko. However, Mother is getting old and her will to live is getting weaker especially with every year that Father is no longer alive, Mother wasn't that young when they had met and wed, her heart longs for him even now."

"We really don't have a choice, your mother is getting old and she needs someone with as large of chakra coils as her, Kushina being able to form chakra chains like she can is just icing on the cake," Midoko said with a sad smile, she then glanced up at her husband before she asked anxiously. "We won't have to send her right away will we?"

Yoban shook his head with a small smile before he said in a firm yet soft tone, "no, we don't barring any unseen events she would stay in Whirlpool until the age of twelve or if she wants to go." The pair watched as their children played with some of the clans summons and smiled fondly as well as sadly since they would only have so long of their daughter's childhood to enjoy before she left for Konoha to become Kurama's Shodai Jinchuuriki.

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Yoban watched with pride as his daughter completed the Seal Mastery exam with flying colors, she was almost seven years old now, only one year before that she had startled her mother as well as the entire clan by activating her mother's clans bloodline limit. After she had done that she had made progress in leaps and bounds compared to the time before she activated it, despite only having it active for a year she had almost completely mastered it. A fact that caused her mother to preen and gloat about to her family, no one of her clan had ever mastered the bloodline limit in under five years before, if their daughter managed to do so then she'd be forever labeled as the clan's greatest prodigy.

He felt Midoko tighten her grip on his hand as Kushina's wrist was tattooed with her name and clan before her right shoulder blade was tattooed with the sign of an Uzumaki Seal Master. The young girl was then allowed to pick her summons from among the clan's many contracts, her grey eyes traveled along the many shelves of the summon scroll library hidden in the secondary village as she worried her lower lip. The entire audience held their breath as she plucked a scroll from the shelf as she said firmly while holding it up, "I'd like to sign this one and see if they want me as a summoner."

The clan watched as she casually sliced her palm shallowly, which she was since some seals demanded that they be written with the users blood, and signed the contract before she pressed her fingers below her signature. At first nothing happened but then a flash of light flared and the red blood turned bright blue to signal the acceptance of the contract to it's new summoner. Kushina then flew through the summoning jutsu before she slammed her now healed palm against the dirt. With a puff of smoke a large cat appeared underneath her, Mikoto sighed before she had muttered to herself, "of course, my speed loving daughter would choose the fastest cats upon the earth as her summons…"

Yoban had chuckled with both relief and amusement, relief due to the fact that his daughter's summons seemed to like her and amusement due to his wife's muttered comment. He then settled Kimihiro more firmly onto his hip and murmured in the four year olds ear, "one day, you too will get to choose a summon, perhaps you'll be the same age that your sister is now perhaps you'll be a bit older then she is. But either way I will be as proud of you then as I am of her right now," the red and black haired boy glanced up at his father before he turned his attention back to his sister. Kushina was chattering to the massive cat which was now lying in front of her with it's head on it's paws, he shook his head over how his daughter managed to call the boss of her summons on the first try, she was idly scratching at the cats ears as she talked to it, the cat was purring as it listened.

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Four months later, Yoban held back his tears as his daughter prepared to leave the village, her grandmother had sent for her sooner than expected. His wife was openly crying while she smiled and kissed their daughter goodbye as she promised to send word to her. Kimihiro was clutching at Kushina's pant leg and refusing to let go as if he could stop her from leaving by holding on, Kushina sighed before she knelt in front of him. She placed her hands on his small shoulders as she pressed her forehead to his and said, "Kimi-Chan, I have to go. Grandma needs me," she then moved her hands to his hair and ruffled his hair as she murmured, "I promise, little brother, I'll write to you so much that you'll wish I wasn't." She then winked at him playfully as she commented slyly, "I'll even send them by cheetah so they can get here faster," she then dropped her voice to a conspiring whisper as she said, "I might even send you a few pranking tips…"

Kimihiro reluctantly let go of her pants as he asked demandingly in a petulant tone, "you swear it, Shina-Chan?"

She smiled at him as she softly said with a hint of fond exasperation in her eyes, "I promise, little brother, I'll even swear it on my eyes that you love so much!" She then nuzzled his hair before she kissed him on the forehead and pulled away before she said in a mock stern tone, "be good for me, Kimi-Chan, or I'll find a way to make you pay all the way from Konoha, just see that I won't!" As he giggled she had dried his tears with her favorite headband which was a dark blue color and had the symbol of their home stitched upon it. After his tears were dried, she tied the band around his forehead as she murmured, "hold this close to you always and smile for me, Kimi-Chan."

The clan watched as Kushina shouldered her pack and left their village with a wave of goodbye, she never once looked back even as the tears streamed down her own face, instead she held her head high as if to show everyone that saw her that she could be broken by sadness or grief. She would cry but not scream, she would bend but not break and deep inside her heart burned a will of fire that burned hotter than the fires of a thousand suns. What neither she nor her homeland could know was that by the time that she had reached twenty-five years old her home village would lie in ruins and her people scattered to the four winds for safety. Nor could they know just what level of fame that the only daughter of their beloved Kage would reach nor the infamy of his son.

To the village she was the prank loving, occasionally serious, seal master prodigy while her brother was only a child that had yet to even unlock his chakra coils, but that fact would soon change with his sister's departure. His sister, from now on, would be bound to Konoha but right now Kimihiro was a young boy who had just watched his sister leave with the blessing of the entire village. He silently vowed that he'd become strong enough one day to be able to protect his sister like she protected him when he was younger.

James was jolted out of the strange memories by his son giggling, he glanced up and spotted Kushina dancing her fingers up then down Teddy's sides, a soft smile crossed his lips as he thought to himself, _'I hope you still live, my precious son. For one day I would like to introduce you to your baby brother,'_ as he thought that his hazel eyes flashed to grey for a split second.

Meanwhile, Remus had glanced out of his office window at his lounging mate and playing pups, in his mind Mooney was lying on his side with a pleased expression on his face as his tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth. He emoted to the human side of himself, ' _mate and pups are happy, we will keep them safe and happy or die trying.'_ The gold eyed man sent back his assent to the wolf's feelings on the matter of keeping their family safe and happy. Remus could hardly believe just how docile his inner beast had become with the birth of their second child but Mooney had mellowed out quite a bit.

As he turned back to his work his thought to himself, _'it's rather nice to see her so happy, she was rarely this happy in her childhood…'_ His gold eyes darkened with suppressed rage and indignation as he thoughtlessly growled, "damn Madara and Voldemort to the deepest hells for going after my baby!" He then froze as he thought over his previous statement before he asked himself in puzzled confusion, "who the hell is Madara and why do I think he went after Kushina…"

Remus shook his head before he left the odd thought alone and returned to his grading, as he did he occasionally glanced up at his family in contentment. Everyone who passed his office heard him humming absently to himself, Lily had poked her head in the office just as he had glanced out the window to where James was watching Kushina attempting to teach Teddy the merits of cloud watching. She smiled at the gold eyed man's clearly displayed love for his family, from the pictures she had see that were taken after her and James vanishing act compared to now, it seemed as if the werewolf thrived off the love of his mate and pups. Although the werewolf still had a touch of grey at his temples but he was no longer had as many wrinkles from worry or stress as before, not to mention that he was no longer so skinny thanks to the steady meals of Hogwarts and his daughter's many houses.

She shut the door without Remus even noticing that she had ever been there at all, as she walked down the hall to go find Coyote and Lilynette, she had shaken his head over her adopted brother's husband. During their years as Voldemort's prisoners, for lack of anything better to do the pair had chatted about everything under the sun and then some, even stuff that they could have sworn that they'd take to their graves. Remus was the center of James' universe along with their children, constant and always there, Lily had after she had heard a ton of stories from James, likened the werewolf to the foundation of James' world.

When they had been rescued from their prison Lily had spent three weeks observing and getting to know her goddaughter/niece, she had discovered that her fellow red head was a mixture of her parents. Kushina had James' mischievousness, temperament, and loyalty combined with Remus' calm nature, long fuse, level headedness as well as his fierce protectiveness. Of course, she also had some of their bad traits, such as James' tendency to jump to conclusions before all the evidence has been found, she also inherited his curiosity and yes Lily considered that a bad trait despite her own innate curiosity. It didn't help that Kushina also inherited Remus' curiosity atop of James' not to mention his tenacity, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. Good since that meant that Kushina didn't give up easily but equally as bad since once something had caught her attention she wouldn't rest until she had either solved it, learned everything she could about it or was incapacitated so she couldn't do either.

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Remus smiled as Kushina held both of her brother's hands as he toddled toward Kushina's old stuffed wolf with a determined look on his face, all the sudden a different scene overlaid the pair. Kushina had de-aged while Teddy was replaced by another boy with slightly sharper features, the other toddler had red hair with black stripes in it, he too was holding the younger Kushina's hands as he toddled to a stuffed animal, a nine tailed fox. Remus' blinked several times, the scene faded from his view and as he watched his son plop down in front of the toy he idly wondered if this might not be Kushina's first time around as his child.

Later that night as James and Remus were sleeping, the gold eyed man was moving restlessly as his mind kept going over the vision he had seen earlier in the day. Beside him, James was tossing and turning himself but neither of the pairs movements interrupted the other's slumber as their minds were focused on what they were seeing in their dreams. Finally both men's restless movements stilled and Remus slipped further into slumber as did James.

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Remus frowned in confusion as he stared down at his flour covered hands for several moments before he realized that his hands were much smaller than what he was used to, that's when he noticed that he was now a she and inwardly panicked. Outwardly however, Remus heard a soft voice murmur, "dang I forgot to take off my ring before I stared mixing the dough…" Remus felt as the woman whose body he was in shrug her shoulders lightly before she said with a wry tone, "oh well, no use crying over spilled milk," she then rinsed her hands off and removed a plain matte gold band from her left ring finger. She carefully scrubbed it before she placed the now clean band upon a dry towel before she went back to mixing the dough.

As Remus was inwardly rambling to himself, _'nothing's wrong, I'm sure there is a perfectly logical and plausible explanation for why I'm inside of a woman's body,"_ the woman heard the door behind her open then close.

"Mommy," a young child called out to them, the woman turned to look over her shoulder and Remus gaped from inside her as he stared at a much younger version of his daughter but her eyes were a different color. He could feel the woman's eyes widening in shock at the sight of her six year old daughter as the red haired girl asked in a plaintive tone, "what's wrong with my eyes? They feel weird and everything is moving so slow," she had said that with her arms crossed over her chest and a pout on her face.

The woman then knelt in front of her daughter and traced the curve of her right cheekbone with her thumb as she stared into her daughters blood red eyes, in each eye were the first markings of the Sharingan. A slow smile curved her lips as she breathed out in awe, "Kushina, you've activated your Sharingan, I never once thought that you'd ever activate it! Mother would be so pleased to find out, so young and you've already activated the family Doujutsu," she pulled the child into a fierce hug as she had spoken. "Yoban, come here quickly," she called out excitedly before she focused her gaze once more on her daughter, who was looking a bit confused over her mother's words.

To Remus' surprise a red haired grey eyed man appeared in the doorway and cocked his head to the side as he asked, "what is the matter Midoko, is Kushina alright?" As he asked that he glanced between his daughter and wife with a worried look upon his face, his brow was furrowed and his mouth was pulled into a frown.

The man was surprised when his wife grinned up at him before she told their daughter, "Kushina, take a look at your father for me, okay, sweetie?"

Yoban watched in vague amusement as his daughter shrugged but did as her mother bade her to do and looked at him, Remus watched with a raised eyebrow as the man gaped down at his daughter's eyes in shock. The apple the man had been holding fell to the floor with a dull thud, Yoban then reached out with the same hand that previously held the fruit, he traced the curves of her left cheek with shaking fingers as he stared into his daughters Sharingan. "You've awoken the Sharingan," her father breathed as he grinned down at the puzzled girl before he said cheerfully, "wait until the rest of the Uzumaki and Uchiha clans hear about this!"

Their daughter's eyes faded back to stormy grey as she rolled them in exasperation before she stalked out of the kitchen as she called out over her shoulder, "fine, don't tell me! I'm going to go ask Elder Nihma just what a Sharingan is," she left her still gloating parents standing in the kitchen as she stalked down the street, most of those outside called out cheerful greetings to the almost six year old girl.

Meanwhile, back in her house Yoban had embraced his wife as he murmured in clear relief, "she'll be safe now, no one will ever suspect an Uzumaki with our bloodline limit to also carry her mother's clans active Doujutsu!" The pair laughed in utter relief since a fully trained and mastered Sharingan could restrain the lower tailed beasts with relative ease, their four year old son peeked into the kitchen with a frown of puzzlement. He eventually shrugged and ignored them as he went back to his playing since they didn't seem to be doing anything interesting.

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The gold eyed man's eyes opened as a bittersweet smile curved his lips as his past life as Midoko Uzumaki nee Uchiha came flooding back to him, Remus' gaze cut over to his sleeping husband and for a split second an image of a sleeping Yoban overlaid him. A few moments later, the hazel eyed man stirred and his eyes fluttered open to stare at his mate, a slow smile crossed his lips as James hooked a leg over the werewolf's left. "What are you doing awake at this hour? And what is causing you to stare at me like that," the former Head Boy questioned with a raised eyebrow at the tawny haired man.

Remus sighed gustily before he nuzzled at James' neck before he said absently, "just odd dreams, Yo-u know," Remus quickly caught his slip of the tongue, or at least he thought he had.

Unknown to Remus, James had noticed the slip and his hazel eyes widened as he realized that his mate must have remembered once being Kushina's mother like James remembered being Kushina's father instead of her mother. Remus couldn't see or feel the smile that crossed James' face but he heard it clearly in his voice when the transfiguration teacher said cheerfully, "you've always had odd dreams since our daughter was born, _**Midoko**_."

Remus' head shot up at that and he gaped up at the knowing gleam in James' eyes as he stared down at his mate, James then commented softly, "you're not the only one who remembers about those past lives of ours." Remus began laughing when his mate had asked with a sly grin and lavacious tone, "so… When do you think we should start asking our daughter embarrassing questions about Minato-Kun? Or telling some of her more embarrassing childhood tales around those who knew her such as Rabastan, Rodolphus and Isshin?"

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To everyone's pleasant surprise, Hallowe'en dawned with barely a nip to the howling wind and clear skies, all over the school the house elves were busy decorating the castle with jack-o'-lanterns as well as other holiday decorations. Even the ghosts got into the act, most of them were happy to tell the younger year about their deaths, neither the Bloody Baron nor the Grey Lady deigned to tell anyone how they died. Due to their refusal to tell their tales rumor ran rampant throughout the school about how the pair had died. As the tale of their refusals to speak about how they had died spread through the school each speculation got more and more outrageous, Kushina had collapsed laughing when a third year had declared, "the Bloody Baron isn't covered in blood, it's paint! I bet he died due to a prank gone wrong and he's just too embarrassed to tell anyone about it!"

Kushina had found out the real tale last year after she had returned the four founders portraits to the school and she had kept it a secret from even Kisuke, out of respect for the pair. This year when the headless haunt showed up and had started in on Nearly Headless Nick about his request to join the haunt, she had snarled silently. She was sick and tired of hearing her house ghost bullied by this wimp, Kisuke took one look at his wife's flashing eyes and swiftly got out of the way. She stood up and whistled sharply, the entire hall silenced at that while Sir Patrick stared at her in puzzlement, she clapped her hands together as she said, "I have a question to pose to all the third years and below. What do you find more awe causing, that," she pointed at Sir Patrick who was standing with a foot atop his head, "or that," as she said that she gestured at Nick, the Grey Lady had pulled his head so it flopped on the sliver of skin that still attached it to Nick's neck.

Unanimously the entire hall pointed at Nearly Headless Nick, a fact that caused most of the haunt to gape in shock at them while Kushina smirked at them before she asked, "now, tell me, why are you more awed by the sight of a not so properly decapitated ghost over a properly decapitated ghost?" She swiftly held up a hand to silence them before they could answer so she could state, "I also wish to know which of the pair that you respect more and just why that is."

Sir Patrick grew furious when every human in the hall indicated that they respected Nick more that him, the haunt stared at Nick in shock when the entire hall said in much the same reason for their respect and awe, "because the properly decapitated one didn't have to endure more than one blow to his neck!"

After they had said that Luna had stood up and sang in a clear tone, _"It was a mistake any wizard could make_

_Who was tired and caught on the hop_

_One piffling error, and then, to my terror,_

_I found myself facing the chop._

_Alas for the eve when I met Lady Grieve_

_A-strolling the park in the dusk!_

_She was of the belief I could straighten her teeth_

_Next moment she'd sprouted a tusk._

_I cried through the night that I'd soon put her right_

_But the process of justice was lax;_

_They'd brought out the block, though they'd mislaid the rock_

_Where they usually sharpened the axe._

_Next morning at dawn, with a face most forlorn,_

_The priest said to try not to cry,_

_"You can come just like that, no, you won't need a hat,"_

_And I knew that my end must be nigh._

_The man in the mask who would have the sad task_

_Of cleaving my head from my neck,_

_Said "Nick, if you please, will you get to your knees,"_

_And I turned to a gibbering wreck._

_"This may sting a bit" said the cack-handed twit_

_As he swung the axe up in the air,_

_But oh the blunt blade! No difference it made,_

_My head was still definitely there._

_The axeman he hacked and he whacked and he thwacked,_

_"Won't be too long", he assured me,_

_But quick it was not, and the bone-headed clot_

_Took forty-five goes 'til he floored me._

_And so I was dead, but my faithful old head_

_It never saw fit to desert me,_

_It still lingers on, that's the end of my song,_

_And now, please applaud, or you'll hurt me."_ She then stared at Sir Patrick before she said sharply, a fact that caused quite a bit of shock among her fellow ravens, "that is the reason that he is the ghost of Gryffindor and why you're nothing more than a coward!"

Nick looked touched by everyone's defense of him against the Headless Haunt and he was startled when Kushina suddenly asked idly, "hey Nick," when he had glanced at her, she had continued, "if I could finish the blow, would you want me to cut off your head?"

He grinned at her before he nodded happily as he exclaimed, "of course, Lady Slytherin-Gryffindor. Although I'm sure that many will miss asking how someone can be ' _Nearly'_ Headless I will simply add another verse to my song!"

She cracked her neck as she smiled at him and said cheerfully, "in that case… Spread thy wings and bare thy blade, defend me, Thanatos!" To the Headless Haunt's shock a large scythe appeared in her hand and she gestured for Nick to kneel before her, he did as she commanded with a grateful smile. She nodded before she swung the blade, it slicked through the air and Nick's neck with ease, a moment later she tapped him on the forehead and his head fell off. Nick grinned up at her from where his head now rested in his hands and he gave her a courtly bow before he glided over to the other ghosts of Hogwarts so he could crow about his head's now entirely decapitated state.

Just as Ron was about to make a joke about how no one could now refer to Nick as Nearly Headless the entire hall felt as the castle shuddered. Both Kushina and Albus cursed in several tongues before Kushina had growled in a low tone, "Voldemort!" With that said she stalked out of the Great Hall, Sir Patrick stared in shock after her since she had growled as she stalked past him, "it's about time to end this, I've had just about enough of his pitiful attempts to kill me!"

After she had exited the Great Hall, it's doors slammed shut and locked down, however, Albus wasn't perturbed since Kushina had showed him how to access the scrying spells of the castle. He activated them as soon as the door locked, everyone in the hall bit their lips at the sight of Voldemort with an army of Death Eaters. The snake looking creature snarled upon seeing her and said with a voice filled with contempt, "what, Potter, are you that eager for death's embrace that you'll face me without your pitiful friends?"

Kushina had prowled forward as she purred in dark satisfaction, "you're going down, Tom. I won't need anyone but myself for that to happen," she shot him a look of mock pity as she remarked, "after all, I'm not the one that needs an entire group of followers to stop a fourteen year old from him."

Voldemort snarled in anger before his face had smoothed out as he calmed himself as he said with arrogance dripping off his words, "you will be the one to fall, Potter, not I, for I have the prophecy on my side!"

She raised an eyebrow at hat before she said with a derisive smirk, "oh, truly? Then I'm absolutely terrified unless the prophecy goes a bit like this: ' _when the war of the beasts brings about the worlds end,_

_The goddess descends from the sky_

_Wings of light and dark spread afar_

_She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting._

_Ripples form on the waters surface,_

_The wandering soul knows no rest._

_There is no hate, only joy_

_For you are beloved by the goddess_

_Hero of the Dawn, Healer of Worlds_

_Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul_

_Pride is lost_

_Wings stripped away, the end is nigh._

_All that awaits you is a somber morrow_

_No matter where the winds may blow_

_My friend, the fates are cruel_

_There are no Dreams, no Honor remains_

_The arrow has left the bow of the goddess_

_My soul, corrupted by vengeance_

_Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey_

_In my own salvation_

_And your eternal slumber._

_Legend shall speak,_

_Of sacrifice at worlds end_

_The wind sails over the waters surface_

_Quietly but surely._

_Even if the morrow is barren of promises,_

_Nothing shall forestall my return_

_To become the dew that quenches the land,_

_To spare the sands, the seas, the skies_

_I offer thee this silent sacrifice._ ' If that was your prophecy then you're screwed," at his confused an angry expression she said with a shark like grin, which reminded a lot of people who met him of Kisame. "That was a poem from the play Loveless not a freaking prophecy and the ' _seer'_ ," she air quoted the last word before she said with a sneer, "was an overly dramatic commander! You," she pointed at the now completely enraged Dark Lord, "fell for one of the longest running pranks in history!" She cackled in glee at the dumbfounded looks that she was receiving from both the Dark Lord and his followers at that proclamation.

Voldemort twitched in anger before he bellowed at his army to capture her and bring her before him so he could relish killing her. As she was still laughing with glee as she ducked and dodged the spells shot at her with ease, when one person came too near her, she had held out her palms and snakes shot out of her sleeves to attack them. Voldemort stared in shock as she decimated his forces until it was just the two of them left on the grounds of the school. He stared at her in shock when she called out, "so have you figured it out yet, Tommy-Boy, or am I going to have to explain my confidence in why I'm sure that this will be our last encounter?"

At his incomprehensible look, her grin widened further while she singsong, "I've heard the real prophecy. Would you like to hear it," she queried and without even waiting for his answer she quoted Trelawney's prophecy for him word for word.

His eyes widened in fear when she said with a smirk, "you were at the height of your power when you tried to kill me as an infant and I was a mere babe, yet, you marked me as your equal!" She tapped her scar as she had spoken, she then bared her arm as she said, "and even worse for you, you chose me to resurrect you, thus marking me as your greatest foe!" She dropped her sleeve as she smiled at him viciously as she said softly with glittering eyes, "twice now have you marked me as your equal, both time you did you were at the height of your power and I was not even past my majority!"

Voldemort swallowed as he realized his mistake and attempted to flee from her, however, Kushina used Shunpo to appear in front of him, she backhanded him with ease. She then proceeded to toy with him, after several moments playing with him bored her so she stopped and said, "times up, you've lived too long now."

Voldemort smirked up at her as he thought triumphantly to himself, _'hah, I still have my Horcruxes, the stupid brat can't know about them!'_

However, that arrogant thought was swiftly banished by Kushina casually mentioning, "by the way, if you're thinking that your trinkets are going to save you from deathj then you are gravely mistaken." As he stared up at her with wide inhuman eyes she said as she ticked off each item from her fingers, "your diary was destroyed when I was twelve while the Peverell ring, Slytherin's locket and Ravenclaw's diadem were destroyed when I was fifteen." She then smirked at him as she crooned while she circled around him, "I'm sure you no doubt remember how Rabastan Lestrange killed Nagini as he and his brother escaped your services. However I'm sure you're completely unaware that Rodolphus took the cup from his vault and handed it over to me to be destroyed, we destroyed it as soon as he handed it over."

Voldemort snarled as he realized that he no longer had any Horcruxes to fall back on anymore, however she could tell that it was mostly bravado and fear behind his growls so she wasn't the slightest bit afraid of him. Besides he was pinned under her foot at the moment while his wand was in her left hand, his eyes widened when behind her appeared the two men that he had seen in her fifth year. The winged man had handed a collar over to her with a smile and a murmured, "here you are my Lady," the other man was standing behind her with glowing gold eyes boring into the Dark Lord.

She smiled cheerfully as she took the collar from him before she said with clear command in her voice, "pin him, it's time that this soul be judged for all the lives he has taken. It's beyond time for me to fulfill my King's order and when it comes to my King's requests I am but his humble servant!" As the two men, well spirits actually but old Voldy didn't know that, pinned him down to the ground, Kushina had snapped the collar around his neck, to Voldemort's shock threads shot out of the collar to wrap around his mouth and bind his hands. Yet another group of threads formed a leash that the red haired witch promptly pulled on steadily until the supposed Dark Lord rose from the ground and she gestured for Thanatos to open a gateway to the King's palace.

What Kushina didn't realize was that Kisuke had activated his advanced tracking system, thus everyone in the great hall was viewing how she was greeted the rest of the King's Guard. She was saluted by everyone she came across while others bowed to her, it all depended upon their own rank as well as how close she was to them on how formal they were with her. The Dark Lord was seething in fury when the four finally reached the throne room, to everyone's shock Kushina bowed deeply to the man sitting upon the throne. She had murmured with only a hint of playful disrespect in her tone as she did, "one Tom M. Riddle, A.K.A. Voldemort, A.K.A. the idiot with way too many hyphenated names, to be judged as you see fit, my King!"

The man upon the throne appeared to be middle aged but gave off an aura that he was much older than that, he had smiled down at her greeting and subsequent introduction of her prize. He gestured for her to come to him, which she did immediately, he pulled her up to sit upon the arm of his throne and carded his fingers through her blood red locks as he said with a proud smile, "perfect, job well done as always and a brilliantly executed plan, my dear."

She smiled smugly as some of the guards grumbled, the King rarely dispensed with compliments so it annoyed the guards when certain people earned the rarely received praise. Only five people had received recognition regularly by the king and those five were: Hisana/Ichigo, Kushina, Yahiko, Rin, and slightly less often, Obito. Considering that three of the five were unseated guards it really rankled the nerves of the seated guards since the other two were the former and current heads of the Guard, they couldn't really object to him lavishing them with praise and attention.

She then leaned on his shoulder as the King read over the file on the man in front of them, he sighed as he laid it down and frowned at Voldemort before he said, "for your crimes, which a few are as follows: multiple murder, soul rending, slave bonds and binding. The first, third and fourth would normally land you in hell, however," he scowled as he growled out, "the second crime on the list is an automatic Soul Death sentence. Unfortunately our only method of such execution was destroyed to save my youngest granddaughter so I'm afraid that instead of being killed by the Sokyoku your soul will be destroyed by a Quincy." The King then gestured for the guards to drag the raging Voldemort away, once the two were alone the King turned to Kushina and stated, "you will be permanently assigned to the living world until you decide otherwise."

Kushina blinked a bit before she had murmured softly, "thank you, my King," she then slid down from her perch and walked toward the door as she said, "I should check on my men before I head back to Hogwarts." She then paused by the door and looked over her shoulder as she worried her lower lip before she asked tentatively, "how is my son, your majesty?"

The man chuckled before he said with a small smile, "he's fine Kushina, in fact he's gained a few allies since you last saw him but you'd better off talking to him about that since he is home. Go visit your son later, after all, a deal is a deal and you've kept your part of our bargain so I will keep mine."

She bowed to him again as she murmured softly, "thank you once again, My King, I shall visit my son the first chance I get," she then left the room and walked down the hall. Not even twenty feet from the throne room, she was tackled by a black haired and eyed man who rubbed his cheek against hers. She laughed before she patted him on the cheek softly as she said in a happy tone with a grin on her face, "hello to you too, Obito-Kun."

"My utmost apologies, Captain Urahara," a brown haired woman called out cheerfully as she walked toward the pair, she then reached down and pulled Obito off of Kushina as she commented wryly, "I'm afraid that he simply got away from me again."

The red haired woman laughed as she allowed her husbands former students to pull her up from the ground before she said, "hello, Rin, I see that you're looking well." She then draped her arms over their shoulders and led them down the hallway as she asked, "so, what have you two been p to while I've been at school?"


	13. Chapter Twelve: Of Fights, Reunions and Surprises!

**Chapter Twelve:** _Of Fights, Reunions and Surprises!_

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Sakura watched as Naruto ducked and weaved around Gato's henchmen's attacks, Sasuke was doing the same with his own group when one of the men that the Uchiha was fighting managed to land a staggering blow on him. Naruto froze for a split second before an aura of blood red chakra flowed around him and a deep growl thundered from his throat, faster than anyone could react to, even the Shinobi, Naruto had defeated all of his opponents before he lunged at the man who hit Sasuke. The normally cheerful and easy going blond gripped the man by his throat, Naruto squeezed until the man was gasping for air as he struggled in the twelve year olds grip, after several long moments the blond backhanded the man unconscious.

Unknown to the watchers, when Naruto had seen the man attack Sasuke from behind him, he became so angry that he literally saw red, as he stared at the man angrily he was startled when the world around him vanished. When the world reappeared around him once more he was surprised to find himself in a large dimly lit room, he heard a faint noise from behind him and turned around. His eyes widened in shock as he stared at a tall red haired man, or rather demon sine he noticed that the man had black tipped red ears on his head along with a long red tail that was swishing lazily behind him.

The man made a small noise of frustration when a loop of yarn fell off of the knitting needle in his right hand and the gold eyed man gave the yarn a sullen glare before he began the process of fixing his accident. As he did that Naruto stared at him gapping in shock as he thought to himself, _'Ryuu-Okasan never mentioned that Kyuubi knitted! Note to self: ask Ryuu-Okasan if Mom ever mentioned that Kurama knitted or if this is a recent development.'_

Naruto saw a bright flash of color appear out of the corner of his eye and glanced over at it, he turned his shocked look toward the wall that was covered in his mental notes to himself. He shook himself out of his shook before he cleared his throat, he had to bite back his laughter when his attention getting noise caused the demon to jump and curse mildly as he almost dropped another stitch. The gold eyes glanced up and their gaze fell upon the golden haired Genin, to Naruto's surprise the startled look in those eyes softened to a bemused fondness. "Hello, Little One," the demon fox said softly as he placed his knitting aside before he cocked his head to the side in confusion as he asked, "what brings you here, little one? You don't seem to be in life threatening danger," he added lightly as he approached the large bars that effectively kept his larger form inside the cage but easily allowed his humanoid form through.

Naruto decided to follow the demon's lead by not getting irrationally angry, instead he shrugged as he said, "I have no clue, all I know is that I saw Sasuke getting attacked and I got really angry."

Kurama blinked at that before his eyes gained a sad look as he held out a hand and gestured for Naruto to come over to him. The blond was confused but since he couldn't feel anything telling him not to he did as the humanoid from of the demon fox bade, he was startled when the red haired demon pulled him into a hug before he felt the much older being nuzzle his blond hair. His blue eyes widened in shock when the demon had murmured softly, "I'm so sorry, my little host, your anger was probably exacerbated by my own that I still feel due to how the village treated you for so many years." He then ran his clawed fingers through Naruto's short locks as he said in an angry tone, "by treating you like that they are insulting your mother's memory along with your fathers!"

Naruto leaned into the touch absently getting for a few moments before he said softly, "thank you but that doesn't answer how I'm supposed to get back from here."

Kurama kept up the petting as he considered the conundrum before he smiled and said in a smug tone, "I think I've got it!" With that said he placed his left hand on Naruto's chest, he coated his hand with his chakra before he shoved the blond backwards, the twelve year old bit back a yelp as the room vanished from around him.

When the world once again formed around him he found himself on the bridge with his hand wrapped around one of the goons necks, instinctively he backhanded the man and dropped his unconscious body to the ground. He turned toward the unfinished end of the bridge in time to see Kakashi land the killing blow on the last man guarding Gato and Zabuza tossing Gato off the end of the bridge into the water below. He summoned a few crocodiles, "tear that backstabbing bastard apart," the Nuke nin growled down at his summons before he turned away from the edge. The crocodiles all snarled hissed and growled their agreement as they began to take turns gripping the body and rolling to tear the flesh apart.

As the pair turned away from the edge the mercenaries still conscious and on the bridge growled at the sight of the man who killed Gato, "kill that monster, he just killed our meal ticket!" The group charged toward the two Jounin only to have a crossbolt slam into the bridge in front of them, they all slid to a halt and looked up to see just who had fired it at them.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura grinned at the sight of Inari, who was holding a crossbow still aimed at the group of mercenaries while he glared at them, as he did he had growled, "get off my Grandpa's bridge and out of **MY** country!"

One of the men sneered at him before he said in a rather derisive tone, "whose going to make us? You? You and what army, brat," he cackled at his on sardonically asked question.

"Us," came a growl from behind the young boy and the group saw most of the villagers standing behind Tazuna's grandson, the villagers were wielding farming equipment with glares on their faces directed at the mercenaries.

Naruto smirked smugly before he chimed in with, "he also has me!" The blond Genin's smirk morphed into a grin as he casually summoned over fifty clones before he said gleefully, "I'm not known as a one man army for nothing! When it comes to Shadow Clone armies, only my mother could even hope to meet or outmatch me!" At that bold declaration more than one person glanced at him oddly and goggled when his entire team had merely nodded in confirmation of the declaration.

As the smarter goon fled the bridge and the country, the stupider ones were beaten into a pulp by Naruto's clones while he wandered over to where Sasuke was healing Team eight's wounds along with Sakura. Haku had a few cuts and bruises but was otherwise unharmed, as Sakura healed Hinata's broken ribs Sasuke started healing the Ice Release user, Naruto took one look at the glint in Sasuke's eyes and scrapped the vague matchmaking plans before they could fully form. Sasuke had only gotten that look in his eyes once before and that was shortly before he adopted the Sabaku clan as his to mother, although now that the blond thought about it Sasuke treated the Kazekage a bit differently than anyone else but he still mothered the older man.

"Hold still, Haku," Sasuke scolded him as he coated his hands with healing chakra Haku sheepishly held still for the younger boy as he healed the cuts and bruises on the Ice users face. Sakura finished healing Hinata's ribs as Shino and Kiba hovered over the pair worriedly, she had Hinata take several deep breaths to test for any lingering soreness in her ribs, thankfully she didn't have any.

"I'm fine Shino, Kiba," the pale eyed girl said softly as Sakura pulled her hands back from over the smaller girls ribs while Naruto headed over to where Kakashi was healing Kurenai and Zabuza's wounds. The red eyed woman had a few cuts and scrapes while Zabuza had deep cuts on both of his shoulders along with a few broken ribs if the way that the crocodile summoner was moving was a clue, Tazuna on the other hand was completely unharmed.

"How are they, Sensei," Naruto asked lightly as he approached the group that consisted of Kakashi, Zabuza, Kurenai, Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari, the five adults looked up at his question.

Kakashi was finishing up healing Zabuza's shoulders as he said, "they'll be fine Naru-Chan, they only have a few surface wounds," he added carelessly as he started healing the Nuke Nin's ribs with a hidden smile.

"Good," the blond stated cheerfully before he wandered back over to his fellow Genin to talk to Sasuke about his plans for when he saw the Sabaku family again.

Kakashi shook his head over the twelve year olds antics before he muttered to himself, "definitely far too much like his mother for the sake of my sanity." The silver haired nin paused in thought before he said thoughtfully, "and Sasuke has her tendency to mother orphans, though I would suspect that to be an Uzumaki trait since Obito liked to mother me and Rin… Still I would have never pegged Sasuke for overprotective mothering if I fully believed his profile that the academy made for him but then again it was Mizuki who had created that profile and Sasuke never show him just what his true personality was like…"

As he said that he watched the oldest of his Genin's fuss over Zabuza's apprentice/partner, Zabuza snorted as he watched the pair before he muttered under his breath, "those descended of the Uzumaki clan almost always have such tenancies…" His comment caused the two Jounin's to chuckle while the civilians near enough to hear it glanced at the three with puzzlement written all over their faces before they shrugged it off and wrote it off as the oddity of Shinobi.

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Two days later, Naruto was meditating while his clones were working on the bridge, a fact that had endeared him to the people of Wave and although he was mediating his clones were still chattering with the workers. Naruto was easily ignoring the chatter around him since he was well used to loud noises due to where he often meditated and sometimes slept, otherwise known as the Forest of Death. As he concentrated he slipped into his inner world without meaning to, of course very few ever truly meant to go into their inner worlds the first time that they do so.

As he glanced around the large forest/mountain range around him, Naruto thought to himself, _'huh, I bet Kurama would love this place a lot better than the sewers of the seal…'_   All the sudden the blond heard a yelp from behind him he then glanced over his shoulder at the sound to find the demon fox looking around himself in puzzlement from his position on the ground. Naruto blinked before he said in a very cheerful tone, "hello Kurama! Do you like this place better than the other place," he cocked his head to the side as he asked that of his demon.

Kurama rose from the ground before he said with a small smile as he dusted himself off, "it's a lot better actually. Sewers aren't really the nicest places to stay after all," he pointed out as he delicately sniffed the air with a blissful expression on his face.

"I imagine not," the blond said in a deadpan tone before he wandered off in the direction of the mountain to the right of where he had first appeared in this odd place.

Kurama watched his host with a bemused expression on his face as he followed the young blond, he then thought to himself, _'you are quite amusing, my little kit and I don't know whether to curse or thank your father for making you my third host. Because unless you transfer me to a new host before your death I'll die with you…'_   The demon's eyes softened as he considered following his host into death's embrace before the thought to himself, _'I almost think that death would be worth it if it meant that I'd be able to discover how much you'll turn the Seireitei on it's head. After all, your mother has certainly rocked it's foundations along with your father,'_   the demon couldn't suppress the chuckle that bubbled out of his mouth as he recalled the tales that Kushina had regaled him with during her visits to Naruto and thus him for the last two years

Naruto glanced over his shoulder at the demon when the older being suddenly laughed, when Kurama noticed the questioning look that his young host was giving him the demon explained, "I just remembered something amusing." Naruto snorted at that but didn't question him any further, they were about halfway up the mountain Naruto had glanced down. There were forests as far as the eye could see but there was an occasional break in the trees to show a clearing, the blond caught a glint from one of the larger clearings and realized that there were either a lake or a river in the area of the clearing.

Kurama had a gleam in his eyes and it dawned on Naruto that the fox demon was eager to explore the forest surrounding the mountain, even in his full fox form it would still take him awhile to fully explore the area. After a long moment to admire the scenery below them, Kurama and Naruto continued their trek up the mountain face, near the top of the peak was a vast temple carved directly into the face of the mountainside. The pair ventured inside carefully, one either side of the immense doorway, which was so large that Kurama could walk through it in his full demon form and still have clearance, were a pair of fox statues that had nine tails each.

Inside the temple were more statues while along the walls were carvings of the origin of the tailed beasts and their earliest activities, the carvings showed how Kurama ended up in Mito Uzumaki then into Kushina and finally into Naruto. Each one showed the life of the host and demon, with Mito it mostly showed that his host didn't enter combat and that Kurama mostly slept inside of her. With Kushina it showed how at first Kushina resented being his host before she came to accept the demon sealed inside of her as well as how she came to have an agreement. The final carvings on the wall showed how Kurama had been ripped from her and used to attack Konoha, it showed the battle of the Shinobi of Konoha with Kurama. It also showed one of Kurama's tails impaling first Minato then Kushina with it barely stopping before touching Naruto who was now splattered with his parents blood. The final carving was of Kurama being sealed inside of the baby, as Naruto traced the carving of his mother the demon had murmured in a heartbroken voice, "I barely had managed to come back to myself shortly before I was sealed into you, it broke my heart when I realized that I had impaled your parents on my tail..." Thankfully none of the carvings showed Kushina's first visit to Naruto and thus to Kurama, the young blond was tracing the carving of his mother subduing an enemy with chakra chains with his eyes.

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Meanwhile, outside of Naruto's inner world Kakashi was startled when a slight red aura had surrounded the blond, however the aura was calming not malicious. He was surprised when the blonds whisker markings deepened while his hair, nails and teeth lengthened, a moment after they did nine tails made of chakra curled around the twelve year olds body protectively as a faint fox head appeared over the boy's own head. Since Naruto was still calm, Kakashi ignored the odd manifestation of the fox since he appeared to be the only one able to see it.

Haku didn't notice the odd glances that he was receiving from the workers due to him leaning over the side of the bridge to watch Sakura and Sasuke drilling team eight on fighting while water walking. Kiba was cursing softly to himself, every time that his focus slipped he'd fall under the water's surface, Shino's focus slipped less then the Inuzuka's did but Hinata blew them all out of the water at how she didn't even seem to need to focus in order to stay on the waters surface. It was as if the water compensated for her brief lapses in focus until she could regain it, Haku heard Zabuza approach, he was surprised when his master commented, "I bet she has a water affinity. What with how easily she took to walking on it as well as if you consider how gracefully she moves both on and off the water, I bet that if a desert dweller ever meets her and if they are single they'll end up falling for her."

Haku frowned before he asked in a puzzled tone, "why do you say that, Zabuza-Sama?"

Zabuza laughed lowly as he said before he walked away leaving a wide eyed teenager behind him, "because the only thing that is truly necessary for survival in the desert is water, to a desert dweller anyone with a water affinity is considered precious considering that almost none of them ever have it. They all have either wind or earth affinities, she is graceful yet deadly, she is kind, caring and soft but she's also a Shinobi as well as a Hyuga who are known for being cold to outsiders however she's warm and friendly to everyone she has met. Those contradictions will capture anyone's attention but especially a desert dweller since the desert is a harsh mistress, it's never kind, never soft and never friendly to those outside of those who dwell within her." Haku stared down at the pale eyed girl in shock as he realized that his master spoke the truth, Hinata was the opposite of the desert and thus would be coveted by anyone who lived there.

At that moment Hinata had moved suddenly but smoothly as she attacked one of Sakura's clones, it dispelled with a puff of smoke, Hinata had landed five swift blows upon it. Each strike could have killed a real person since she had struck it using her clans personal taijutsu technique, Kiba had whistled lowly before he commented, "your sister has absolutely no idea just how lucky she is that you love her too much to fight her at your full potential, does she?"

Shino was panting beside him from the exertion that he had made to escape the attack of several clones, once he had caught his breath he had slapped the other boy upside the head as he said, "of course Hanabi and the rest of their clan are unaware of it or Hinata would still be clan heir." Shino had then rolled his dark grey eyes, Akumaru had stolen his sunglasses and refused to give them back to him, before he said, "one day Hinata will do exactly what her ancestor did and fall in love with someone outside of her clan that the clan doesn't approve of before she marries them despite the clans opposition."

Kiba rubbed the back of his head where Shino had slapped him before he nodded in agreement as he watched their teammate dancing, or rather going through a Kata but it looked so much like dancing that to the two boys there was no real differences in the distinctions. Kurenai watched in amusement as the tattooed Genin goggled at his male teammate when the Aburame had took his coat off and tossed it onto a rock that was well above the high tide markings before he rejoined the spar. Akumaru had glanced at his owner/partner before he sniffed Kiba and barked questioningly up at him, Kiba had flushed a deep red at the bark before he hissed down at the dog, "I rather doubt that Akumaru, so stop asking me that!"

The small white dog grumbled before he scratched behind his left ear with his hind paw and ignored his human partner as the Inuzuka leapt back into the spar to prove the lazing pup wrong about his question. On the bridge Haku had giggled when Sasuke tripped one of Kiba's clones before he clothes lined another, Kiba cursed again when he was dumped into the water when he lost concentration due to the sudden information dump from his clones.

Zabuza laughed before he glanced over at Kakashi as he said in an amused tone, "the Uchiha has a streak of rather cruel humor doesn't he," he cocked an eyebrow at the infamous copy-cat nin as he had spoken.

"Along with a very strong maternal instinct, yes," Kakashi stated blandly as he turned a page in his most worn copy of Icha Icha before he glanced over at Naruto, who had a smirk on his face briefly before the smirk vanished as his face smoothed out.

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Naruto smirked when Kurama had tripped a snare and was hanging upside down from a tree, the fox demon pouted down at his host before he whined, honest to goodness whined, "get me down from here, Naru-Chan!" Naruto had snickered as he did as his demon bade and threw a kunai at the rope, which caused the fox to fall on his head with a startled yelp. Kurama then glared sullenly at the blond child as he rubbed his aching head as he grumbled, "you definitely act far too much like your mother. Anyone who states that you look like your father but you have the majority of your mothers personality an sense of humor is telling the truth," Kurama ignored how Naruto beamed at that comparison as he rose from the ground.

Naruto sighed suddenly before he said with a pout, "darn it, I'm going to have to stop meditating soon, I'm getting hungry," he whined as he crossed his arms with a sullen look on his face. One of Kurama's ears twitched when Naruto's stomach growled at it's empty state before the blond child blushed in embarrassment due to the loudness of the grumble since it reverberated through the now silent forest.

Kurama cackled in laughter as he rolled around on the forest floor, in mid roll he was startled when Naruto suddenly vanished from sight, he ceased laughing as his ears twitched restlessly as he searched for Naruto. He heard the blonds voice coming faintly from his right, he treaded carefully in that direction, however when he reached the sound all he found was a river. He was startled to be seeing through his hosts eyes when he peered into the small water flow, his tail swayed happily as he realized that he hadn't been forced to go back to his cell. Although Naruto was still his container/jailer it wasn't that much of a jail compared to his previous area of residence. After all it's hard to feel like a prisoner when he had the run of a large forested valley surrounded by mountains with plenty of things to explore without much chance of becoming bored with it.

Having reassured himself that his host was perfectly safe and sound, Kurama wandered off in a random direction so he could begin his exploration of his new home. Unknown to both Kurama and Naruto, something had changed in their relationship, something that wouldn't have happened if Kushina hadn't visited Naruto and checked on the Kyuubi so often, as it was her very presence changed the pairs situation drastically.

This was due to her shinigami nature combined with her high amount of Reiatsu along with the desires of both Kurama and Naruto, her mere prescence coupled with Naruto's large chakra reserves allowed the blond to begin to form his inner world. The fox's presence within the seal near his chakra coils along with their unconscious wish to never be parted from each other even in death odd though the mutual wish was, tricked his own Reiatsu into thinking that Kurama was his Zanpakuto spirit. However although neither one of them were aware of the fact, but thanks to the bond growing between them, they would be the most unique pair of host and demon along with being a very unique pair of Shinigami/Zanpakuto in the history of the Seireitei.

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Kakashi noticed when Naruto's eyes fluttered open, he briefly saw the blonds cat-like eyes before his appearance reverted back to normal and the red toned aura vanished from sight along with the fox head, the tails also vanished from sight. By the time that team eight and Naruto's two teammates had returned to the bridge Naruto's stomach uttered a resounding complaining growl that caused more than one person to stare at him oddly. Sasuke laughed before he had commented with glittering black eyes, "well I guess we better feed you before you start seeing mirages of Ramen bowls everywhere again!"

Naruto huffed in mock irritation as he muttered while he followed the older boy back to their tent, "one time, see mirages of ramen bowls one time, in the middle of freaking desert I might add, and you're labeled for life!" Kakashi and Sakura laughed at the pair as they left the bridge for the night as the sun had started to set soon after Naruto had emerged from his mediation so the rest of the workers were also journeying home for dinner.

Tsunami and Inari were wearing amused expressions at the sight of the bickering pair that Sakura called her Genin teammates, the daughter of the bridge builder quickly served the hungry group. She had gotten used to feeding such a large and hungry group over the last few days that she was easily able to both prepare and serve large filling meals to them after they returned back to her home for the day. Thanks to Gato no longer having such a stranglehold over their ports the men that weren't working on the bridge were going out every week to fish, those who had visited Wave shortly before teams seven and eight arrived had volunteered to help after Gato's death. One such pair was a married couple, the wife was pregnant and very near the end of her pregnancy if Tsunami's guess was correct. The young mother to be looked to be around seven to eight months along, her husband had volunteered to go out on the fishing boats that didn't have full crews, Tsunami was sometimes sure that his wife only saw him lately for a few hours at max lately due to the fishing before he was back at sea.

Thankfully she only seemed bemused by this and not upset, to most of the citizens of Wave's puzzlement, she often called her husband her shark, he in turn would refer to her as his beloved crow. While her husband was out at sea she would tend to such tasks as putting up laundry to dry, mending clothes and wrangling children by telling them tales of strange or outlandish places. Often she held more then one adult spellbound as she wove tales of a heroine who had saved a rare and valuable stone that could give it's owner everlasting life as well as endless gold from a man intent upon stealing it for his own gain. Her other tales were of the same girl but from different points in her life, she told tales of the girl facing trolls, dragons, immense man eating spiders, killers who weren't killers, giant three headed dogs, centaurs and mirrors that could show your hearts deepest desires as well as snakes that could kill you with a stare or petrify you if you looked at it's eyes indirectly.

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Sasuke was wandering through the village near the bridge when he, literally, ran into a heavily pregnant woman with a laundry basket full of wet clothes. Sasuke quickly caught her as she stumbled from the unexpected impact, "I'm terribly sorry about that, miss, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," to the woman's bemusement the Genin bowed to her in apology.

She giggled a bit before she said with a soft smile, "that's quite alright, Shinobi-San, I wasn't watching where I was going myself," she tilted her head to the side as she contemplated the basket full of clothes between them before she picked it back up with a sigh.

Sasuke had followed her over to the field full of clotheslines, he started helping her put them on the lines despite her protests that she could do this by herself. He snorted as he waved his hand before he said stubbornly, "I know I don't need to help but I want to, you can consider it an apology for almost knocking the clothes to the ground."

The woman sighed before she said in a resigned tone, "thank you Shinobi-Chan, my husband will be grateful to hear that I didn't put up all of these by myself, he's been very worried over me lately." As she had spoken she had placed more clothes on the line in front of her, she had hung up dresses, shirts, pants and skirts, for children and adults alike, Sasuke had stared at her a bit before he shook his head as he turned back to his half of the laundry.

After several moments of silence Sasuke was startled when the woman yelped suddenly as one of her hands flew to her distended abdomen, at his concerned stare she gave him a slightly strained smile before she said, "it's alright. My baby simply woke up and decided to let me know," at his worriedly confused expression she had elaborated with dancing onyx eyes, "it kicked." His eyes had widened in comprehension at that, he then watched as she rubbed soothingly at her abdomen after several moments of this, "do you want to feel? Just about everyone in the village has felt my baby kick at least once, hell most people in the country of Wave has!" The moment that he had nodded tentatively she had wrapped her hand around his wrist and brought his hand up to her lower abdomen, she watched with a fond smile as awe lit up his dark eyes as the baby's movements pressed against her stomach and subsequently his hands.

As she watched her baby brother feeling his niece or nephew kick at his hand, Itachi thought to himself, _'Mother would be so proud of you, baby brother, for helping someone after a mild accident not to mention the rumors that I've been hearing about you adopting the Jinchuuriki of Suna and his siblings as yours to protect. Although, I do have to wonder just how Suna had reacted to you do that,'_   her black eyes danced in amusement as she imagined the baffled looks that her younger sibling had no doubt received for doing such a thing.

Over the next several days the two had met up and Sasuke would help her with any chores that she was doing as they talked, after the baby woke up Sasuke would inevitably have his hand on her stomach with a smile on his face. Sasuke had found out through their discussions that her husband was out on the boats retrieving the fish needed for the villages to survive the upcoming winter when the water was too rough for the boats to go out. Other men were working on harvesting the fields while the rest were either out on the boats or the few who knew what they were doing in construction helped with the bridge which thanks to Naruto's clones more men could be spared to harvest or fish then if he hadn't helped. When Sasuke had questioned her about why her husband wasn't helping by either working on the bridge or in the fields so he could stay closer to his wife she had answered by saying in a laughing voice. "Building things is not my husbands forte neither is harvesting or planting things, if he tried to do that he'd end up gathering the inedible parts and discarding the edible ones," she had flashed a grin at him before she said in a mock secretive tone, "there is a good reason that I do the cooking!"

What neither Sasuke nor the people of Wave had noticed was that the woman had always avoided the other Shinobi with the ease of long practice. One week after the battle of the bridge and Gato's subsequent death the pair had left Wave as they commented about making her family worry about her long enough. Once the pair were a sufficient distance away from Wave and sure that no one had either followed them or could see them, Kisame had dropped his henge that concealed his shark-like appearance.

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Two days after the couple had left a vaguely familiar red and black haired man walked toward the village from the northwest, Tsunami smiled at the sight of the man as she called out to him happily, "hello Hiro-San! Welcome back, you've been gone for a long time," she hugged him as she had spoken and the older members of the village recognized Tazuna's old friend the Wanderer. He would come and go as he pleased without any apparent rhyme or reason to it, sometimes he'd stay for a few days other times it'd be a few months to years. The last time Hiro had visited Wave had been eight years before which had been three years before Gato's arrived and reign in Wave so no one in the country bore a grudge that he hadn't come to save them since they knew that Hiro would have hurried back if he had known.

Hiro chuckled as he said while he hugged her back, "hello Tsunami-Chan, how's the old reprobate doing? Still among the living I hope," he jokingly asked with twinkling grey eyes as he pulled back from the embrace.

Tsunami laughed brightly as she said teasingly, "yes, Hiro-San, Father is still among the living, although," she murmured with remembered fear, "it did come rather close about a week ago…" At his alarmed look she hurriedly explained how Gato had gained a stranglehold on their small country and how her father had become determined to build a bridge connecting Wave to the mainland even if it cost him his life to do it. She then told him how her father had returned to Wave after a brief trip to Konoha, she had told him about the now legendary fight of the bridge.

After her tale was over Hiro had shook his head and said with a wry smile, "well, well, well… Tazuna certainly knows how to do things big," he then glanced up at her from his hunched over position from where he had been laughing as he asked, "is he at the bridge right now?"

She had nodded she watched him stand back up as she said, "yes, the two teams of Shinobi are there as well," Hiro had nodded before he turned away from her, she called out after him, "Gato also hired some Nuke nin. He tried to double cross two of them so they sided with us during the fight and for some reason the pair of them swore loyalty to one of the Genin's of team Seven. I believe the two nuke nins are at the bridge right now so don't be surprised at seeing them!" He glanced over his shoulder at her before he nodded in acknowledgement at her words before he waved farewell, he left the area as he headed toward the partially finished construction.

Inari had looked up at his mother with a frown as he asked, "who was that, Mom and what does he want with Grandpa?"

His mother sighed before she aid as she led her son back to the house she shared with him and her father, "his name, or at least the name that the people of Wave know him by, is Hiro Makino. He's also called Hiro, the Wanderer due to his tendency to never stay in one spot as well as how he wanders all the countries restlessly, it's as if he's searching for something but cant seem to find it. As for what he want's with your Grandpa is simple to answer, he's an old friend of your Grandpa's from way back before Gato arrived he's just going to talk with Father and make sure he's alright with his own eyes."

Meanwhile, Hiro approached the bridge and whistled a tune, this action gained the attention of not only Tazuna and the workers but also all the Shinobi on the still incomplete bridge. Naruto hadn't used any of his clones to help today since Kakashi wanted to teach him a jutsu and his clones would be better served trying the jutsu themselves rather than helping with the bridge since the other two of team seven were capable of using the same clone jutsu. Haku and Zabuza were both wary of the man since they didn't know who he was, Kakashi was down the river with Naruto attempting to teach him a highly destructive jutsu that he had ordered the blond that if he succeeded in learning it then he was to only use it in drastic situations. Sasuke had sent a hawk to retrieve the pair as soon as Hiro started to walk onto the bridge toward them, all of the Shinobi had noticed how the man moved and that made them extremely wary of him. A moment later the group relaxed and Sasuke regretted sending the hawk since it was plain that the bridge builder was friends with the man even if the man moved like a seasoned Shinobi of Chuunin or higher rank.

The two men had clasped hands before the red haired man pulled the bridge builder into an embrace as he said, "I'm glad to see you still among the living, Tazuna, it would have caused me great grief if an old reprobate like you had gotten themselves killed off." He then pulled back from the hug as he said cheerfully, "I saw your daughter, she had a young boy with her that I'm assuming is your grandson," he cocked his right eyebrow at him questioningly as he had spoken.

Tazuna snorted before he nodded as he said, "yeah, Inari is my grandson, I take it that Tsunami was the one who had blabbed about me almost getting killed," Tazuna asked as he walked the other man over to the blueprints of the bridge.

Hiro smirked as he said in an arrogant tone, "of course, Tsunami-Chan could never resist telling me when you did something stupid, dangerous or both!" The bridge builder shoved the grey eyed man in the shoulder with a playful glare, Hiro had just laughed before he glanced over at the Shinobi casually as he asked, "are you going to introduce me to your Shinobi guards or not?"

Tazuna grumbled before he gestured at the two nuke nin as he said, "that's Zabuza Momochi and his apprentice, Haku Yuki," Hiro nodded at them in greeting and the two eyed him warily but nodded back. He then pointed at team eight as he said, "that's team eight apparently, which consists of Kurenai Yuhi, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga."

To Kurenai, Shino and Kiba's shock the man smiled at Hinata before he bowed to her respectfully as he murmured, "it's always a pleasure to see kin of the leading clan of my old country, with the loss of the Uchiha there are very few that are still related to them alive…"

Tazuna ignored the murmured words of his old friend along with the shock looks of the Shinobi as he turned to team seven and said, "the pink haired girl is Sakura Haruno, she's training to be a medic nin and Sasuke Uchiha, he's training in genjutsu to become at least an adept at it but he is also being trained in emergency medial jutsus." He then stated blandly, "their teammate is currently down the river with their sensei, I believe their sensei is attempting to teach him how to use explosive clones."

However at that moment, Naruto and Kakashi swung themselves over the side of the bridge, "already taught that one to him months ago Tazuna-San, I was just teaching him a jutsu that his mother invented and taught to me when I was eight," the silver haired ninja corrected him blandly as he ruffled Naruto's hair absently.

Sasuke noticed how Hiro's grey eyes had widened in shock at the sight of the pair, everyone's eyes then widened in utter shock when Hiro had yelped out, "little Kashi-Chan!"

Kakashi's head shot up and his visible eye widened in shock as he gaped at the older man before he said in a stunned tone, "Kimihiro-San! What are you doing here? I had just about given you up as dead or worse!" He then noticed how Kimihiro's eyes had strayed toward Naruto and knew that the older man was seeing the resemblance between his sisters husband and Naruto. After all Kimihiro had been one of the witnesses to the pairs wedding, Naruto looked far too much like his father for anyone who knew that the two to ignore successfully without being in utter denial. Kakashi inwardly swore that if one of the next questions out of Kimihiro's mouth didn't concern Naruto's parentage then he'd tell Anko that Gai liked her in more than just a friendly fashion. Which of course would cause Gai to kick his ass all over Konoha since he wanted to woo the snake crazy woman who loved her job just a little too much.

"I'm just visiting an old friend," Kimihiro retorted automatically before he asked in a forced calm voice, "who is this, Kashi-Chan?" He then smirked wryly as he said with laughter in his voice, "tell me that he's the son of 'Nato and Kushina or I'll be very disappointed."

At that everyone on the bridge gave him an odd look while Kakashi laughed in amusement before he said with an eye-smile, "may I introduce my little gaki, Naruto Uzumaki and yes, he is their son." He then ruffled Naruto's hair as he said with a soft smile directed at the only child of his teacher and the woman that he considered a second mother, "Naruto, I'd like you to meet someone who was very close to your mother," at that statement everyone goggled at him. Everyone then stared at the three in further shock when Kakashi cheerfully stated, "meet Kimihiro Uzumaki, current Head of the Uzumaki Clan and the beloved younger brother of Kushina Uzumaki A.K.A the Crimson Blade."

Naruto's eyes had widened in shock as he stared p at the man who was apparently his uncle, when the man's grey eyes had begun to sparkle in amusement Naruto knew that his sensei was speaking the truth. His mother had that same look in all the photo's he had seen her laughing in or obviously amused by something. He had finally murmured softly as he stared up at the man, "so you're my uncle, huh, that's weird," he muttered before his blue eyes narrowed at him as he asked in a suspicious tone, "how much older then you was my mother? 'Cause you don't look that old," he declared with his arms crossed over his chest as he unknowingly gave his uncle the same look his mother did when she wanted him to fess up to something he had done but wasn't admitting to.

At that Kimihiro had laughed before he said with his eyes twinkling madly, "she was three years older than me and I'm currently forty-one years old, but thank you for the nice compliment, Nephew mine! The Uzumaki clan has always aged rather gracefully as well as being long lived, your great-grandmother lived to be ninety-five years old. She and Grandfather had an age difference of twenty years with her as the elder of the pair, my father and uncle were a bit of a surprise for them both, they weren't expecting for Grandmother to be able to become pregnant. So Uncles birth was joyfully welcomed and Dad's birth was definitely considered a bit of a miracle. We of the Uzumaki clan marry for love or not at all and we are entirely willing to wait years for our love to come to us." His grey eyes dimmed as he said sadly, "your mother was quite lucky to be able to find hers, I'm still looking for mine, perhaps I'm like Grandmother and there will be a large difference in mine and my mate's ages. Perhaps it's simply the fact that I keep missing them in my wanderings and it's time for me to settle in one place while I let my mate come to me."

Naruto blinked at the influx of information about his mother's clan and family by his maternal uncle before he asked him, "how come you never came to Konoha? Did you not want to see me," his blue eyes dulled at that soft question.

To his surprise Kimihiro had dropped to one knee and said with flashing grey eyes, "never, ever think that again, I would have come to Konoha in a heartbeat if I had known that you were still alive! I thought that Kushina had died before she had given birth to you and that you had died with her. I've spent the last twelve years grieving the loss of my sister, her husband and their unborn child as well as hunting down the bastard who did that to you three!" He took in a sharp breath through his nose before he said in a voice that was obviously forced into calmness, "I will finally be exercising my right, given to me by the Yondaime Hokage, to take my place in Konoha as the Head of my clan. My Grandmother held the Uzumaki council seat until her death and it's been vacant since your mother's death, it is past time for what remains of our clan to gather in Konoha. I will extend the invitation to all of our clan's allies, none will be turned away unless they refuse to swear the loyalty oath to the clan once more." He glanced at Haku and Zabuza as he stated with a smirk, "family is family so no matter their status with their former villages they will be protected as part of the clan."

"The Konoha civilian council won't be happy about that," Kakashi pointed out as he turned a page in his book, Kimihiro rolled his eyes at the sight of his sisters favorite novel series.

He crossed his arms and stated firmly, "it is my right as a blood relative to two of the founding clans of Konoha to bring any clan and it's allies to settle permanently in Konoha if I so wish. Furthermore, I have a written invitation by the Yondaime Hokage, even if he is now dead his word is still law so I highly doubt any will object to my presence in the village." He tossed his hair arrogantly as he stated, "I may only be a seal adept unlike my sister whey was a seal master but there are a few people who know seals better than an Uzumaki."

As everyone's confused looks Kakashi explained Kimihiro's last statement, "even if the civilian council objects none of the Shinobi clans would want to lose a seal adept of the Uzumaki clan. You see, the Uzumaki clan's former village had a much higher standard of testing than any other village. An Uzumaki seal novice to other people would be the equivalent of a seal adept while their adepts would be equal to other people's seal masters and their seal masters were considered gods by other countries." He then glanced at the elder man as he said in a considering tone, "in fact, if I'm not mistaken Kimihiro-San had been about to take his mastery exam when his village was destroyed so he could be a seal master with the title of adept."

Kimihiro snorted before he said in a wry tone, "even if I was of the level of a seal master and not an adept I can never claim that title since it has to be bestowed by another Seal Master of the Uzumaki clan." As they had spoke the sun had set, Kakashi extended the invitation to join team seven in their tent until they left Wave, after a moment of though Kimihiro agreed to the invitation. When he saw the abilities of the tent he had snorted before he muttered under his breath, "you definitely were showing off your seal mastery with this Kushina."

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Four days later, the bridge was complete thanks to the clones that both Kimihiro and Naruto had sent to help with the construction, the country declared the day a holiday before they started the largest party to ever be held in Wave with the Shinobi as the guests of honor. All the Shinobi's had a standing invitation to the country of Wave at any time they wished to visit, a fact that surprised the two nuke nins when they had been included in the blanket invitation. Three days after the party had been held the group had left Wave via the bridge, that four Jounins chuckled when they heard Tazuna name his bridge, 'The Great Naruto Bridge,' all seven kids rolled their eyes at the oddness of adults. The snakes had insisted that they walk back at least part of the way back to Konoha since they wanted to stop at a seaside cave to check on something or other that was in the cave.

The group were startled to find a fire going inside the cave and they were even more startled when the snakes called out, "Mother Empress, are you still here?"

A woman appeared at the caves entrance at that and blinked at the sight of the group, she had long black hair while her eyes were a pale violet with cat like pupils. _"Hello, little ones, what brings you to my cave,"_ she hissed in Parseltongue without thinking. Out of all the people standing there only Naruto could understand what she had said to the snakes who where now wrapped around her shoulders, waist and both forearms.

Kimihiro blinked several times since he recognized her from an old family portrait, she had been draped in a similar manner as she was now even back then, that particular painting had been in the family for over eight hundred years by the time of the loss of the village. He knew that the Uzumaki clan was long lived for Shinobi but eight hundred years was pushing it, he was startled when the woman glanced at Naruto and smiled fondly at him as she hissed at him. Unknown to the grey eyed man and companions Naruto heard her saying, _"hello, little speaker, do the serpents belong to you,"_   there was no word in Parseltongue for summon so it was substituted with words of ownership.

Without thinking Naruto answered back in the serpent tongue, a fact that caused quite a few of his fellow Shinobi to glance at him oddly, especially Kimihiro since it wasn't an Uzumaki clan trait nor a Uchiha clan trait or even a Senju clan trait. It wasn't even a Namikaze clan trait since neither his sister nor her husband could speak the tongue since his sister had never used it as far as he knew. " _Hello, Mother Empress,"_   the young blond used the title that the snakes had used since her name was unknown to him and he didn't want to insult her by using the wrong title for her. _"Yes, the serpents belong to me, however they also belong to Hinata,"_   he stated as he pointed at her to his right, the pale eyed girl eeped as she had the strange woman turn her gaze to her.

At the use of the odd title the woman had laughed softly before she hissed at him with an amused smile, _"my name is Camilla Slytherin, not Mother Empress, that is a title that the serpents bestowed upon me since my son was their first owner."_   When the blond had informed her that Hinata was also a summoner of the serpent contract her eyebrows had rose in shock, the girl looked too meek to have gained the respect of Manda and his kin. This was due to the fact that after his mistake with Orochimaru the snake boss was even more picky with choosing and accepting a summoner. She almost couldn't believe that the snake Sannin fell for the lie that Manda wanted sacrifices of humans to appear, he only had that rule for the moron that had given all snakes a bad name, however, Orochimaru had yet to break any of the rules of the contract so he was still able to summon them.

As she contemplated the young Hyuga girl as snake had hissed in her ear, _"Manda adores her, Mother Empress, he even said that if he could adopt humans then he'd adopt her in a heartbeat,"_   her eyes widened at that. For Manda to be that fond of her this girl must be far more than she appeared to be, the reason for the boss summons respect was soon revealed by the serpents as they stated absently, _"she refuses to harm her younger sister even in ritual combat to be head of the clan one day. As such her sister is now the clan heir but so far she hasn't been announced as Clan heir, officially her father is waiting until she has completely proven that she will not become stronger. Unofficially he refuses to acknowledge that until she's too old to be forced to be branded by the clan council, her father loves her as such he wants to protect her as best as he can."_

Her eyes flashed in anger at the though of a father or clan forcing siblings to fight each other in order to determine who was best to lead the clan in the future and which should be branded as lesser than the other. After all, sometimes the strongest in battle is the worst to lead the clan and the weakest is the best to do so since they will act for the best of all not the best of the strongest. She turned to Hinata and with the ease of long practice said without speaking Parseltongue, "it's nice to meet you, little one, the serpents speak quite fondly of you," she leveled an amused stare at the young girl as she remarked, "to have Manda's affection is a very rare thing. Very, very, very few have ever gained such an honor in my very long life," her eyes dimmed as she remembered the few who had done so of the clan that her beloved son's mate belonged to.

Hinata's eyes were wide after that statement and she watched as the woman bowed to the group as she said, "my apologies for not speaking to you in your own tongue earlier. I'm afraid that I was overcome with delight at meeting another speaker after so many years, the last one I spoke to was my adopted son. My name is Camilla Slytherin, one of the few surviving members of the Slytherin clan," she inclined her head as she stated, "though I am not the clan head I do need an heir to pass along my legacy to. The snakes have informed me that it is doubtful that you will be your father's heir, correct?"

Hinata nodded before she said softly, "that is quite correct, Lady Slytherin, my sister Hanabi is most likely to be the next Head of the Clan unless I can prove myself stronger than her. But father doesn't want to announce that until I've reached Chuunin rank that way the clan council cannot mark me like they have the branch clan, since it is one of the founding rules of the village that no Chuunin or anyone of higher rank can be modified by their clan. Besides, one I gain Chuunin rank I can choose my own spouse, that law was also laid down since the founding of the village."

She hummed lightly before she murmured softly with knowing eyes, "so your father is stalling until you are beyond the clan councils reach," her eyes twinkled with unrestrained humor as she had spoken. "Tell me child, is the law concerning adopted children still in effect?"

"If you mean the one where a clan has to respect the claim of the persons new clan over their own and must not discipline that member anymore then yes, that law is still in effect," Kakashi stated blandly to her.

She smiled in a feral manner before she purred in sibilant satisfaction, "good," she then turned to Hinata and asked in a formal tone, "Hinata Hyuga, first born daughter of the head of the Hyuga clan, would you do me the honor of becoming my daughter by blood adoption?"

Hinata stared at her silently for several moments before she said with a happy voice and a small smile, "it would do me if I could become your daughter and serve as your heir." A pleased smile crossed Camilla's face as she drew the young girl close to her, the snakes that had been wrapped around the woman now draped themselves over Hinata as they hissed their pleasure and delight over her choice. For as far as the snakes were concerned they had just gained another Mother Empress, even their beloved Master Salazar had never been blood adopted by Camilla, he had been magically adopted along with by her will.

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Meanwhile in Konoha, the Hokage was jolted out of his paperwork daze by the rap of a hawk with a scroll tied to it's back via a harness, it was rapping it's beak against his window when he glanced up. He then noticed that the Uchiha clan symbol was embossed upon both of the shoulder straps of the hawks harness, so he gestured for Ibiki to open the window for the bird. The hawk landed on his desk and allowed him to retrieve the message from the harness before it vanished in a puff of smoke.

The ANBU in the room watched as their Hokage gaped at the messages contained within the scroll before he had muttered, "that boy has the luck of his mother! Only Naru-Chan could go on a simple escort mission and send a letter to tell me that he's bringing home three strays!"

Ibiki, Inochi and Shikaku looked at him with bemusement in their eyes at that before Inochi asked his Hokage, "just what do you mean by that Hokage-Sama? Who is Naruto bringing home with him that caused you to react like that," his left eyebrow raised in an ironic manner as he had asked that of his leader.

The Sandaime snorted lightly before he said in a wry tone, "even if I don't tell you, you'll still find out since two of them are going to be interviewed by the Torture and Interrogation department before we induct them into the ranks." After he said that he had smiled wryly before he said, "he's bringing home two nuke nin's who have sworn loyalty to him along with the Head of his Mother's clan!"

At that Ibiki smiled gleefully as he said, "the little gaki certainly does have his mother's luck. Only he and his mother could have the luck to go on a simple escort mission and return home with three strays like that!" He stared at the Hokage expectantly and the Sandaime handed over the two files that concerned the two nuke nins so he could look them over before the group got to Konoha.

"Those files were made by Kakashi during the mission, as such they are not complete, whatever information is mission you are to fill out as you interview them," the Hokage stared at him sternly. "Do not break them, Ibiki, I would prefer to have the two of them in our ranks since they would protect Naruto with their lives, I know the Uzumaki clan loyalty oath and it won't allow them to do otherwise."

"Understood, Hokage-Sama, I will do my best not to break them as well as completing the files concerning them," Ibiki said before he nodded in acknowledgment and he left the room. He then headed to his own office, as he passed the secretaries desk he nodded to her absently before he went to his office and closed the door behind himself after he checked the room over, thankfully no letters from the dead were in the room.

He sat down at his desk and opened the first file, he read it aloud absently as he went over it, " _ **Name: Zabuza Momochi**_

_**Age: 26** _

_**Height: 6'** _

_**Weight: 159 lbs** _

_**Hair Color: Black** _

_**Eye Color: Grey** _

_**Rank: Jounin (Missing Nin)Former Village: Mist** _

_**Blood Type: A** _

_**Date of Birth:** _

_**Clan: Momochi** _

_**Spouse: None** _

_**Children: 1 Adopted Son - Haku Yuki** _

_**Summons: Crocodiles."**_   He raised an eyebrow at that before he murmured to himself, "and I thought that my contract for the Komodo Dragons was weird but this takes the cake, at least I'm not the only one with a reptile for a summons…"

He shook his head before he set down the file on Zabuza before he picked up the second file and began to read that one aloud as well, " _ **Name: Haku Yuki**_

_**Age: 15** _

_**Height: 5' 1"** _

_**Weight: 95 lbs** _

_**Hair Color: Black** _

_**Eye Color:** _

_**Suggested Rank: Chuunin Former Village: Mist** _

_**Blood Type: O** _

_**Date of Birth:** _

_**Clan: Yuki (Momochi by adoption** _

_**Spouse: None** _

_**Children: None** _

_**Summons: Polar Bears."**_   He snorted before he placed the second file down and said in a wry tone, "I wonder what the boy looks like if he has the Polar Bears as his summons…"

At that he set down the file and picked up the letter that the Hokage had placed in between the two folders, he raised an eyebrow at the letter's contents before he laughed which attracted the attention of Anko who had poked her head into the room. She raised an eyebrow at him as if to ask, _'just what is so funny, Ibiki?'_   He laughed before he gestured for her to come into the room and close the door behind her, once she had done as he bade her to do he began to read the letter aloud.

" _ **Dear Old-Man Hokage,**_

_**It's Naruto if you haven't already guessed! Something really weird happened on our mission to Wave, we ran into a missing nin and his companion. But that isn't what's weird, what was weird was the fact that as soon as they heard my name both of them claimed that I had their loyalty and respect due to me being an Uzumaki.** _

_**Then about a week after that a man showed up in Wave, he was an old friend of Tazuna but more than that according to Kakashi-Sensei he's my maternal Uncle! He's also the Head of mine and mom's clan, he wants to come to Konoha and retake his families council seat as is his right as Clan Head. He didn't know that I was alive, he thought that I died with mom this whole time or he'd have come to Konoha in a heartbeat. Kaka-Sensei just muttered something about a letter of agreement between Uncle Kimihiro and the Yondaime Hokage.** _

_**Naruto Uzumaki,** _

_**Son of Kushina Uzumaki,** _

_**Konoha's #1 Most Unpredictable Ninja,** _

_**Believe it!** _

_**P.S. Sasuke just wanted me to remind you even thought they could already be there to make sure that the Sabaku family and their teacher are roomed in his clan compound. More specifically in his house, their rooms are already prepared for them and even marked so they won't get them mixed up.** _

_**P.S.S. The snakes want us to stop by this old seaside cave to check on something that was left there so we might be a little late. Of course we could be early if Sasuke agrees to use his hawks again to get us there faster. See you when we get home, old man!"**_ At that sentence Anko had collapsed due to laughter while Ibiki smirked to himself before he muttered, "that boy is definitely too much like his mother," unknowingly he agreed with the Kyuubi about that but he would forever remain clueless about that.


	14. Chapter Thirteen: Of Arrivals, Discoveries, Puppets and Interrogations

**A/N: Okay, I'll admit that this chapter took an odd turn for me but hey if the muses want something done then I obey or they don't give me more ideas! :-) So without further ado here is Chapter 13! P.S. There is some possibly adult content in the story I've marked it as such so you can skip over it if you really want to. :blushes furiously: I can't believe my muses are making me write things like this!  
**

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**Chapter Thirteen:** _Of Arrivals, Discoveries, Puppets and Interrogations_

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Three days before the Hokage received the letter and files from Team Seven, Team Suna arrived at the gates of Konoha. Izumo and Kotetsu looked up when the five approached the gates with interest. Izumo quickly catalogued the appearances of the three kids that Sasuke had apparently adopted as his own and those descriptions matched the three Genins approaching them. Inwardly, the two wondered which one of the two men was Baki and just who the other man was, one man had red hair and green eyes while the other wore a turban that covered his hair along with one of his brown eyes.

Akasuka was amused by how he was confusing the gate guards, lately Gaara had taken to stealing his robe and hat of office so he had put them away in a storage scroll until the finals of the Chuunin exams. Ever since his appointment as Kazekage Akasuka hadn't appeared outside of the village as Kazekage without those two objects so no one even recognized him as the Kazekage. When the group stopped in front of the gates to check in for the exams as a foreign team, the two gate guards smiled cheerfully as Izumo said, "welcome to Konoha, I'm Izumo and that lazy fool is Kotetsu." The other Chuunin squawked in outraged, false of course since he knew very well that he was lazy but he did object to being called a fool.

Baki nodded in greeting to the both of them before he said, "I'm Baki, these three are my students: Temari is the eldest," he tilted his head toward the only blond as well as girl in the group before he pointed at Kankuro as he said, "and that's Kankuro, as you can no doubt tell, he likes cats." Kankuro rolled his eyes at that but smirked when his teacher nodded toward Gaara as he said, "that is Gaara, he's the youngest out of the siblings."

Akasuka chuckled at the sullen glare that his eldest son was giving his teacher as he grumbled about how his cat hood was perfectly acceptable, his laughter gained the attention of not only his three children but also the two gate guards and Baki. The Suna Jounin smiled at the sound of his normally serious and silent Kage, although now that he had thought about it Akasuka had been less serious or silent since Sasuke had come into their lives and turned Suna's world on it's ear. A fact that had caused more than one member of Suna, civilian and Shinobi alike, to come to adore the Uchiha if for no other reason than the fact that she had returned the Kazekage that had been seen after the birth of his first child as well as helping Gaara with Shukaku. Which in turn meant that the only reason that Gaara would ever turn against Suna would be if they tried to harm his new 'Mother', however him referring to her as his mother had caused more than one person to give him the oddest of looks.

At Izumo and Kotetsu's curious expressions as they glanced at him, the 'undercover' Kazekage bowed as he said with a smile, "Akasuka no Sabaku, I'm here to keep an eye on my three kids," his eyes softened as he glanced at the three Genin. He then said softly, "I'm afraid that I recently got a big wake-up call and I don't want to lose the closeness I have regained with them…"

Kotetsu nodded before he had the three sign in the logbook, he then said as he closed the book, "I'll have one of my summons go get your escort to our housing for your time here." Akasuka merely nodded in acknowledgement and five minutes after the man had sent off his summons, a tanned man appeared at the gate The small group gaped when Kotetsu smiled and greeted him cheerfully, "hello Iruka, I'm glad to see that you were able to come so quickly."

Iruka snorted as he rubbed the scar across the bridge of his nose as he stated wryly, "considering that I had already finished grading my student's papers all I was doing was sitting around and missing Kakashi."

Izumo barked a laugh before he commented as he handed over the file to Iruka, "if only your silver scarecrow knew just how much you pine for him while he's away from the village I bet he wouldn't be so worried about losing you to someone else." He tapped his chin as he ignored the glare that his old friend was shooting him at the smart remark, "of course, as much as he was limping when Teams Seven and Eight left I think you already drove that particular thought out of his mind…"

Kotetsu had then taken over with a leer as he said, "and judging how much you were limping I'd say that he returned the favor!"

Iruka blushed as he glared at the two gate guards before he turned to the five Suna nins as he said, "welcome to Konoha, my name is Iruka Umino and I'll be your escort to your accommodations during your stay in Konoha. With that said he gestured for them to follow him and led them down the streets, the five had arrived at dusk so hardly anyone was out and about. Until they reached the Uchiha compound, the man had kept up a commentary of Team Seven's exploits in Konoha, from Naruto's pranks to Sasuke's broodiness and Sakura's growing reputation of keeping the two in line. He glanced over his shoulder as he had said while leading them inside of the compound, "Sasuke informed the Hokage that the five of you have permission to reside here, in fact Sasuke insisted upon it."

The tanned man had led them through the compound to the northeast side of the compound, he then gestured at the house that was there as he said cheerfully, "your accommodations. Sasuke told me that the five of you already had rooms, so you should be able to figure out which one belongs to who since they are all marked," he then inclined his head as he said to them, "have a good night."

With that said Iruka left the area and headed back to Kakashi's house where the Jounin's Ninken insisted that he stay while his silver Hound was off on a mission. Akasuka raised an eyebrow at the retreating man, he had read the reports on Team Seven and he knew that the Chuunin who escorted them to the house was one of only a handful of people who could wrangle Team Seven. The Kazekage then led the way inside of the house with a small smile playing on his lips as he did, he barely paid attention to the houses interior save to note that it was immaculate and organized. The brief glimpse he gave the kitchen had him making a mental check next to his suspicion that Sasuke enjoyed cooking since it was of a professional style and setup.

Akasuka climbed up the stairs to the second floor, he ignored the study for now, his three children and Baki followed him, when the five reached the top of the stairs, the hallway was large and tastefully decorated. There were pictures hanging on the walls, some were of Sasuke's parents and older brother from before Sasuke had been born, yet more were from when Sasuke was an infant or young child. While even more pictures were of Sasuke's Genin days, one of Sasuke laughing with a fluffy chick sitting on her head while Sakura was lying on the ground with a badger lying by her with it's head on her stomach. Naruto was pouting from where a massive snake had him pinned underneath it's body due to it being draped over his legs and hips. In the background of the photo Kakashi was clinging to a tree as he laughed so hard that he was having a hard time standing up as well as crying due to the intense laughter. The tears were streaming down his face from both his visible eye and from under his forehead protector, the three had been laughing due to a comment the snake had made before he had pinned down the blond.

Akasuka stared at a picture that must have recently been taken although he had no real clue as to how they had managed to take it without him noticing, it showed Sasuke relaxing with him and his children, Gaara was lying down with his head in Sasuke's lap while Temari had her head pillowed on Kankuro's stomach. The puppet user had been playing cats cradle with his chakra strings so to build not only his dexterity but also his motor control over the strings. In the photo Akasuka had a fond look in his eyes and on his face as Sasuke had been absently leaning against his chest as they watched the three children, well at least Sasuke was watching the three as she played with Gaara's hair.

He heard as Temari called out, "hey, I found a door with a panda on it, I think it's Gaara's room! Sasuke-Okasan always prefers to call him 'Panda-Chan' after all," Akasuka whined low in his throat, all three of his children had overheard his explanation to Sasuke about how Gaara had come to contain the one tailed beast. The four Genins had been outraged when Akasuka had explained that it hadn't been his idea to seal Shukaku in his youngest child, that plan had been cooked up by Gaara's mother. According to the notes that the ANBU of Suna had found after the recent resealing, the wife of the Kazekage had been planning to take control of Suna using her son as the figurehead. After all, she would ensure that Gaara would adore her alone while hating his own father, after her death her brother had continued with her plan to poison her son against his own father in hopes that Gaara would one day kill Akasuka. After the revelation all three of the Kazekage's children refused to refer to the woman who had given birth to them as mother instead they granted that title to Sasuke. The truth of the sealing later reached the ears of the entire village of Sunagakure and even further to the courts of the Suna Daimyo, all of Suna held nothing but the highest respect for Sasuke due to that while Akasuka received his peoples understanding sympathy.

He walked over to where his daughter was standing and glanced over her shoulder to see a panda sitting down with a strangely cute expression on it's face with pleading eyes while it's arms were open as if it was asking for someone to pick it up and hold it. Kankuro snickered lightly as he rubbed his baby brother's hair before he said, "it looks just like you did when you woke up from that nap that Mother made you take and you had pouted up at Father."

Gaara sniffed in fake haughtiness before he opened the door and ignored his older brother's snickering as he entered the room, it was painted a soothing deep sea blue while the bed had bedding in desert colors. The other four watched as Gaara tossed his storage scroll on the dresser and set his sand gourd against the wall near the door before he happily bounced on the bed as he looked around the room that had been decorated with pandas. His father chuckled lightly before he commented pointedly, "I think we should leave Gaara to unpack and find our own rooms so we can rest." With that said he led the other three back out into the hall, to the right of Gaara's room was a door with a lion on it, a smirk appeared on the Kazekage's face as he said while he pointed at it, "I think that's your room Baki." The Jounin huffed and entered the room, he closed the door behind him firmly not allowing them to see the room at all, across from Baki's room was a door with Temari's favorite summon carve on it.

When she opened the door she found a room decorated with dark purples and blues, the walls gradually faded from a purple so dark that it seemed almost black up the wall to a sky blue at the tops. The beds main coloration was a deep blue accented with royal purple, Temari smiled at the color scene and her smile widened further when she realized that most of the room was decorated with a fan motif.

Kankuro noticed that across from Gaara's room was a door with a carving of Karasu holding a two tailed cat etched into it. When he poked his head in the room he noticed that it was decorated with dark red and deep yellow gold, unknowingly Kankuro had the same favorite colors as his long deceased many times removed Great Uncle. His room had a cat theme motif to it, little kittens played along the bottom edge of the wall, the reading lamp on the desk had a cat attempting to hook a fish with it's paw painted on it. The puppet user snickered as he said cheerfully, "I love Mom's sense of humor, seriously. Now I'm really wondering how your room is decorated, Dad," after Sasuke had verbally kicked Akasuka's ass and turned the Kage's world upside down, he had managed to get all three of his kids now either called him Father or Dad. If he was giving them an order as their Kage then they would dutifully refer to him as Kazekage-Sama, if it was merely a formal situation where he wasn't acting as their Kage then he was Father in all other situations he was Dad. And unless they had a nightmare or needed reassurances from him, then they called him, Papa.

After a moment Akasuka closed the door to leave his son free to unpack in complete privacy as well as letting him explore the new space, it was obvious that Sasuke meant for the five of them to always be able to call her home theirs as well. He noticed that although the door on the left side of Gaara's room was blank the one to the left of it had a leopard carved into it, Akasuka ran his fingers along the carving with a pleased smile on his face. A few moments later he opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind him firmly as he did so, there was a king sized bed in one of the corners of the room. It's bedding was black with green trim, in fact the green was the exact same color as his and Gaara's eyes, the walls were cream colored with little leopards chasing hawks around the room. As Akasuka looked around he had chuckled before he shook his head and began to unpack his scrolls.

He placed the scroll that contained his robes and hat of office into the drawer of the nightstand by the bed, on the other side of the nightstand was a bay window with a built in bench with storage underneath it. From what he had seen all three of his children had almost the exact same layout that his room had, he then stored the rest of his clothes in the wardrobe on the other side of the window from his bed. As he walked into the room, on his left was a desk with a built in bookcase, the wardrobe was in the left far corner of the room when he walked in with the bed to the far right corner. To his immediate right as he walked into the room was a door that when he poked his head in, turned out to be the bathroom with a second door right across from the door from his room, he raised an eyebrow at the door but ignored it for the moment to investigate the bathroom.

By the other door was a large partially glass enclosed stall that he was extremely curious as to what it was but he decided that he would wait until Sasuke had returned home before he fiddled with it. Right across from the stall was another wardrobe which, when he opened it up and looked inside it, contained the linens such as the sheets, towels, rags, washcloths, pillowcases and other such necessary items. Akasuka's face flushed when confronted with an, unfortunately, necessary item for any female during that certain time of the month, he quickly closed the door of the wardrobe and steeled himself before he opened the second door. He groaned when his sudden fear had been confirmed by the sight beyond the door, beside the window was a perch and on the desk right across from the door was several weapons waiting to be sharpened along with a scroll sitting neatly upon it. However, what confirmed the fear that the room belonged to Sasuke was sitting on the bed, they were three of the four stuffed animals that he had bought for her, the three sitting on the bed were the panda, cat and weasel, the one that was missing was the leopard that represented him.

Akasuka thumped his head against the doorjamb as he muttered to himself, "what the hell am I going to do now," he cast his gaze about the room helplessly. He took in the rooms décor absently, the room had green walls and noted that the bedding was the same color as his but with the opposite scheme, where his was black Sasuke's was green and visa versa. He cautiously entered the room fully, his reasoning for his actions being that if Sasuke didn't want him in her room then she wouldn't have put his room right next to hers and sharing her bath.

Proof that he was right was found on Sasuke's desk in the form of a scroll with his name scrawled on it, absently he sat down at the teenager's desk and read the note that the Uchiha left for him. He goggled at the letter's contents, at first he was hurt and angry that Sasuke hadn't told him about the Uchiha's true gender but soon realized that Sasuke hadn't meant any harm by not telling them. This was due to how them not knowing had completely slipped the Uchiha's mind as well as all of Suna not being aware of Naruto's invented jutsu. He leaned back and contemplated Sasuke's request that he tell his children about the Uchiha's true gender as well as the thirteen year olds request that he reassure his children that, no matter his physical gender, he would always be their 'Mother.'

As he rose from the seat, Akasuka ran his index finger along the cheek of the Sasuke in Team Seven's unofficial team picture that one of Naruto's clones had taken one day after training. Sasuke was in female form with a smug smirk on her face, Naruto had a grin on his and he was making a peace sign with the hand that wasn't resting on Sasuke's left shoulder, his arm was actually draped over Sakura's shoulders. Sakura had a soft smile on her face and she was resting against Sasuke's side to make it easier for Naruto to reach over her shoulders to Sasuke's left. Kakashi had his hands resting on Sasuke and Naruto's heads while he looked down fondly at his three kids, to help their sensei prank the village, the three Genins' made sure to never take a picture where it might be possible to catch their sensei without his mask.

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While the five Suna Nins were settling into their new rooms and home, Iruka was reporting to Ibiki, Inochi, Shikaku and the Hokage about his own perceptions of them. Izumo and Kotetsu had already given the four men their report about the Suna nins, when Iruka walked into the office he found Ibiki leaning against the wall just behind and to the right of the Hokage. Shikaku was leaning against the same wall but to the left of the Kage, Inochi on the other hand was leaning over the Hokage's desk reading a, clearly old, file when Iruka came into the room. The Sandaime flashed a smile up at Iruka as he said, "welcome back, Iruka, I trust that the troublemakers are dealt with?"

Although the four in the office were well aware that Iruka had been home before he had been summoned to the gates to escort the five Suna nins and not with them nor the fact that he had escorted the Suna nins, it was entirely possible that an enemy might try to take advantage of Konoha's seemingly lowered security to try to harm the Hokage. Since an enemy wouldn't aware that Iruka had done that nor about where he had been before he had done that, they would regard the Hokage's comment as cues and respond as such, thus revealing that they weren't the academy teacher at all. Iruka snorted before he crossed his arms as he stared at them while he said, "you know perfectly well that I was at home about ready to prepare to go to bed when I was called to escort Sasuke's adopted family to his house as per his request/order."

He then rolled his eyes as he said while he dropped down into a chair, "however, since I know that you were merely checking to see that I'm actually me, I'll let it pass."

The Sandaime chuckled at that as he said with a smile, "thank you, Bear, I would not wish for one of my best ANBU to be angered at me, even if he is retired and teaching pre-Genin." At that comment Iruka raised an eyebrow in a vaguely threatening manner, this action caused the Hokage to shiver and the other three men to snicker, the three knew that Iruka's 'revenge' would consist of pranks not actual physical harm. The Hokage swiftly changed subjects to try and distract Iruka from planning his impending doom, forgetting that the longer the Chuunin had to plan the worse the eventual revenge would be, by asking, "how did it go and what were your impressions of them?"

The tanned man shot his Kage a look that promised that he wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon before he began his report, "the escort went fine and none of the civilians noticed that I took them to the Uchiha compound. Baki seems like a competent instructor while his students are fairly level headed, the three seem to enjoy teasing each other. However Gaara seems to have a slightly drier humor than his siblings, Temari has an interest in wind jutsu's she mentioned that Naruto showed her a few when he was in Suna. While he had been doing that Sakura and Kankuro had been trading tips on chakra control techniques, as for their father," Iruka murmured as his eyes grew hazy as he remembered the conversation he had with the red headed man.

After a moment of silence he continued, "Akasuka is an interesting man, he spoke of Sasuke very fondly and even mentioned that for the return of his youngest child's happiness as well as the affection of his eldest pair he will always hold Sasuke in not only the highest regard but affection as well. Later when Akasuka and his children entered the house Baki told me that all of Suna had grown fond of Team Seven when they briefly stayed in the village. Apparently the Jinchuuriki of Suna's seal had been placed over his heart, Team Seven corrected that while simultaneously explaining just why a seal like that should never be placed over someone's heart. Apparently the Jinchuuriki had been suffering from bouts of uncontrollable anger and paranoia as well as intense acute insomnia. The poor host hadn't slept for years so the moment that the one tail was sealed away firmly he had dropped strait into slumber."

The four other men in the room gaped at the younger man when he calmly announced that, much the same that he had announced to a person who had been speaking of a plan to bed Kakashi Hatake in order to see his face. The Chuunin had told the other man that the silver scarecrow was ' **his** ' lover and how no one but Iruka bedded said Jounin. When confronted with Iruka's claim on the infamous Jounin, said former ANBU had smirked and said cheerfully to the person who had told him about Iruka's claim, "I am Iruka's and Iruka is _**mine**_." He had then given the person an eye smile while he radiated an aura of malicious killing intent as he said, "therefore, keep your filthy paws off of **MY** Dolphin!" Said person had gulped when the normally lazy and relatively easy going Jounin glared at him for the perceived interest in his lover, as well as for the obvious disbelief that Iruka was his lover.

The Sandaime had blinked a bit over the information before he said, "well, that certainly explains the letter that the Kazekage had sent with his assessment of the security for the Chuunin Exams as well as his suggestions for the security." The third's eyes went out of focus as he murmured, "the Kazekage mentioned that Sand owed Team Seven a great debt of gratitude that it will never be able to repay fully. He also wrote that so long as Team Seven and those they called family continued to call Konoha and so long as his own line lived then peace would forever remain between our two villages. He had made a foot note at the end of his letter that extended a permanent invitation to Suna for the four members of Team Seven and their clans."

Ibiki raised an eyebrow at that, it was quite an honor to be offered a permanent place in a village by it's Kage, that invitation ensured that should Konoha ever lose the loyalty of Team Seven then not only would the lose their alliance with Suna but Suna would gladly take in Team Seven and those they had declared their family. From the gleam in Iruka's eyes the man still known as Bear by select ANBU realized it as well and knew that the Hokage could hold their invitation as leverage over the heads of the Civilian Council. Since as far Naruto and Sasuke were concerned their Clans were joined permanently, as such they would perceive an insult to one clan as an insult for the other and where one went the other followed, even fewer people were aware that Kakashi had considered Naruto's mother as his own and thus her son was part of his rather small clan.

Shikaku stared chuckling as an odd thought crossed his mind, at the other four men's confused looks he explained, "I was just picturing the look on both the Civilian and Clan Council members faces if you made it expressly forbidden along the lines of treason to even make Team Seven, in it's entirety to feel like they should leave the village." Iruka snickered as he pictured even the unflappable Hiashi Hyuga gaping in shock at the Hokage if he ever did what Shikaku suggested, after a moment both Ibiki and Inochi joined the other two in their amusement.

The Sandaime smirked before he remarked, "if I wasn't sure that Danzo would try something to ensure their loyalty, I'd actually do that just to see the looks on their faces," his gaze darkened in suppressed rage. He then growled out, "I wish I could prove my suspicions about him but I have no proof that he has committed treasonous acts against Konoha, if I had just one person, just one," he held up a finger as he spoke, "willing to testify that Danzo gave an order in my name or if they had seen him commit treasonous acts I'd have him executed in a heartbeat."

He then rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sighed before he grumbled softly he grumbled, "if I ever find out that my suspicions are correct and Danzo did have something to do with Sakumo's death along with the Uchiha massacre, I'll kill him myself!"

Ibiki raised an eyebrow at his Kage before he questioned, "why do you suspect that he might have anything to do with their deaths? I can't recall him approaching either Sakumo or any Uchiha clan members preceding their deaths and more importantly, why would he want the White Fang or Konoha's strongest clan dead?"

At the questions the Sandaime sighed before he said grimly, "I suspect him to have something to do with Sakumo's death due to him knowing that I was seriously considering Sakumo as my successor along with Minato. I know that Orochimaru had nothing to do with his death since he was unaware of Sakumo being considered for the position at all." He then smiled wryly as he commented, "besides, Orochimaru was well aware that Kushina would gleefully murder anyone who hurt her partner, or Kakashi for that matter." His eyes flashed angrily as he said with a grim smile, "and as for why I believe he might have something to do with the Uchiha massacre is simple… The Uchiha clan as a whole swore a loyalty oath to the Uchiha clan as well as another oath to the dying Minato and Kushina that they would watch over their son as best as they were able to. Before their deaths the Uchiha clan would ' _take custody_ ' of Naruto so he could sleep, eat and play in peace, if I'm not mistaken, the Uchiha clan also were the ones to teach Naruto how to read, write and talk coherently."

Hiruzen Sarutobi scowled deeply as he muttered under his breath, "Danzo has always hated the Uchiha besides if it meant that Naruto was suffering he'd do it in a heartbeat. That old War Hawk has always hated Minato even before he became a potential successor to me and Naruto does resemble his father greatly. I suspect that if it wasn't for how much of his facial features as well as his attitude that he got from his mother then many of those who knew them would suspect that Kyuubi altered his hosts features to torment them with their loss."

Unknown to the five men in the office, that was precisely the reasoning that many of the civilians used to justify their hate of the 'Demon Brat' as they called him. When Kisuke and Kushina returned to Konoha, the civilians would be in for a very rude awakening when it came to the treatment of their beloved Hokage's only son. Of course, when Kimihiro arrived there would be no doubt be a massive explosion when he discovers how his sisters village had treated her beloved son. His sister had written to him about her suspicions that she was pregnant and expounded on how delighted she would be if she was indeed pregnant. She had wrote to him that if she had a son then she would name him, 'Naruto Hoseki Uzumaki-Namikaze.'

When Kimihiro had read that letter and the name that she was planning to give her son he had cackled loudly before he proclaimed to the empty forest around him, "and I thought mom was nuts for naming me, the ocean of benevolence! Really, Shina-Chan, naming your poor unborn son the Maelstrom Precious stone Whirlpool-Oceanwind. Are you trying to get him to be bullied!"

Abruptly, Iruka asked the other four men, "what file were you guys looking at anyway?"

Hiruzen snorted before he handed the file over to the academy teacher, Iruka skimmed over it before he did a double take at it. He then read the files contents silently to himself, _'Name: Akasuka no Sabaku_

_Age: ~~12~~ / **31**_

_Height: ~~4' 9"~~ /_ _**5' 11"** _

_Weight: ~~102 lbs~~ /_ _**165 lbs** _

_Status: ~~Low Chuunin~~ /_ _**High** _ _**Jounin** _

_Blood: Unknown_

_Date of Birth: November 12_ _th_ _, 1966_

_Clan: Sabaku_

_Spouse: ~~Unmarried~~ /_ _**Unknown, presumed divorced** _

_**Children: Temari (15), Kankuro (14), Gaara (13).** _

_Rank: ~~Chuunin~~ /_ **Jounin**

_Summon: Leopards_

_Partner: ~~Sasori of the Red Sand(Akasuna no Sasori)~~ /_ _ **currently none as far as we know**_ _.'_ The file was clearly old and slightly out of date but some of the parts were remarked next to the original entry with new information.

Iruka snorted as he handed the file back to the Hokage before he said, "so his former partner is now a nuke nin, that certainly is interesting," Hiruzen nodded in agreement as he took the file from Iruka. "Also, you might want to put that his spouse is deceased not merely divorced, she died while giving birth to Gaara, so she's been dead for twelve years. And he now has the Scorpion contract as well as the leopard contract," the Chuunin added thoughtfully as the other men goggled at him.

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As the five were discussing the Suna nins, a pair of missing nins slipped though Konoha's defenses by using the same disguises that they had used to escape notice in Suna. The pair presented papers declaring that they were a newly wedded couple from Rain touring the hidden villages of Sunagakure and Konohagakure. Once the couple had been checked into their hotel, Deidara had draped herself, for some bizarre reason the blond had begun to refer to himself by female pronouns shortly after they had arrived in Suna. Sasori suspected that it was due to how he twitched slightly every time the blond did so, the explosion loving blond chuckled at her partners irritated look before her hands flew through a simple privacy jutsu. She then purred as she stretched across the bed in small writhing movements, "is something wrong, Sasori no Danna," as she had stretched her shirt had rose upward and showed off her taut smooth abdomen.

A smug smile flashed across her face when her partner had pounced on her, it never failed to amuse and please Deidara that despite how her partner didn't have hormones anymore, he'd still pounce on her if the blond indicated that she'd be receptive to 'playing.' Of course anyone who was aware of the fact that Sasori had turned himself into a living puppet would wonder just how in the worlds could the pair 'play' with each other in the first place. What many didn't realize was that the brain was where arousal and attraction tended to begin first, for the pair, at least on Sasori's side, love came first.

Deidara had never, and never would if he had any say about it, bothered to inform the red head that he had been slightly disturbed to be attracted to a puppet, at least he was until he realized that it was Sasori's personality that was so attractive to him, not his body. Although the blond teenager would be the first to admit that he loved the puppet body that was the exact replica of Sasori's real body, long ago destroyed, the most. When Sasori had mentioned that he was going to make some modifications to one of his puppet bodies so he could please Deidara better, the former Suna nin had been surprised when Deidara had requested that he modify one of the puppets that looked exactly like his old body.

In the end, all of the modifications that Sasori had wanted to do to the puppet body took him almost three months of continuous work to complete, the new body had a smoother feel to it's 'skin' as well as some new attachments that the puppet user had been eager to try out on the blond. Although the puppet user couldn't feel pleasure like a normal person he could derive it, or at least satisfaction, from turning his partner into a panting, moaning and whimpering mass of mindless flesh. The first time that the pair had played together after Sasori had finished his modifications, it had taken over two hours for Deidara to begin to even think coherently and Sasori had remained smug over his accomplishment for two weeks, much to the confusion of the rest of the Akatsuki members.

Deidara gasped as Sasori began to make use of one of the blonds, and Sasori's for that matter, favorite modifications, a rather realistic synthetic tongue. Deidara didn't know what it was made of nor did he want to know but he was happy that it felt like a real one, the only reason that he knew that it was fake was due to the fact that Sasori preferred that his creations lasted forever if at all possible. As he licked and nipped his way down his lover's throat Sasori had slid his hands under the blonds shirt, he rubbed his thumbs against the area of her stomach just above her waist, his actions caused the blue eyed nin to squirm underneath him. The pair had been 'playing' together for barely over a year now, however, that was more than enough time for Sasori to learn all of his lover's hot spots.

As he pulled back to gauge how much Deidara was close to the edge, Sasori took off his partners shirt, this action disheveled her hair and Sasori stared down at the blond. Deidara had a light flush on her cheeks as she panted with her eyes closed, however, they flew open as she let out a surprised moan when Sasori raked his fingernails across her stomach and down her inner thighs as he sucked a hickey right over her heart. Her fingers twined their way through the older nins red locks to urge him to move just a little further to his right or left, after a moment of her tugging at his hair insistently he obeyed the request. Right as he did, she had opened her mouth to either beg, plead or demand that he get on with it and stop teasing her, however, a soft scream exited her mouth instead.

She felt his chuckle as vibrations against her skin which caused her to whimper lightly, sometimes Deidara cursed the fact that she couldn't return the favor of tormenting her lover with pleasure since he no longer had the nerves to tell his brain if something was pleasurable or painful. The first time that they had 'played' with Deidara in this form both of them had startled by the fact that the blond was capable of having an orgasm one right after another. This was one fact that the red head enjoyed exploiting to make his partner scream in pleasure, he found it slightly odd but he hated it when Deidara was upset or hurt but he loved it when his partner was happy.

As the puppet user undid his lover's pants he had murmured, "we'll find Gaara in the morning, tonight is for us alone," he then kissed, licked and nipped his way down to the edge of her underwear. A shiver raced up the blonds spine as he had spoken, the last time that Deidara's lover had said something to that effect he had tested several new features of his upgraded body to drive his lover out of his mind. Over the next two and a half hours, Sasori tormented Deidara with pleasure before he even got undressed himself, as he stripped Deidara from having her fifth orgasm after having been repeatedly denied it for the last half hour.

The blond eyed her stripping lover as she recovered her breath from her last scream, her blue eyes locked onto Sasori's hands as he stripped off his shirt and dropped it to the floor. Although he wasn't ripped with muscle, he was defined enough to show that in his life before he had become a puppet he hadn't allowed himself to slack in keeping in shape, Sasori's attention to detail always amazed his lover. When the puppet user's hands dropped to his pants, the blue eyed gaze sharpened with anticipation, Sasori smirked as he slowly undid his pants and allowed them to drop to the floor. Much like his battle puppet bodies, Sasori had used the abdominal area of the body for storage for 'attachments' that he used on his lover.

The reason for Deidara's anticipation was simple, the blond never knew which attachment it would be that Sasori had equipped, so every time he took off his pants it was a surprise that the bomb user looked forward to seeing. Deidara bit her lower lip to keep her gasp from escaping, Sasori had apparently made yet another attachment since she had never seen this particular one and Sasori used them all on her when they had played for the first time with the bomb user as a girl. The one that was currently jutting from his pelvis was quite formidable looking and if the blond hadn't known that her lover would never hurt her not to mention the fact that Sasori's inspection of her female form had been very through, she would be terrified that it was far to large for her to take.

To any other person, the phallus would look monstrously huge, it was slightly over eleven inches long and three inches in diameter, her folds, already soaked due to her previous climaxes, became even wetter as she imagined how difficult it would be to take it at first. The shaft was glistening with the fluid that Sasori had created just for this purpose, every once and a great while Sasori would surprise his lover by being too impatient to deal with the foreplay. During those times Sasori would take his lover no matter where they were, the same fluid that Sasori had at his disposal to lubricate the phalluses he used on his lover also acted as a substitute for a normal mans cum, thankfully it didn't have the same chance of getting the blond pregnant as that would be rather awkward to explain to the rest of the organization.

As a mischievous twinkle appeared in her blue eyes, Deidara thought to herself, _'at least he made it taste good or I'd never suck on it, and that would be a shame since he does seem to enjoy me doing that,'_ before she leaned forward and did her best to fit the large cock into her mouth. Even though he didn't truly feel a single sensation caused by her mouth Sasori still clenched his jaw shut to hold back the majority of the groan from escaping as he stared down at the shaft that was being taken into his lover's mouth. Deidara was moaning in delight as she licked and sucked the shaft like an ice-cream cone that was in danger of melting before it could be eaten fully, her blue eyes flicked upward and caught his brown eyes as she managed to take over eight inches of the shaft down her throat. After several long moments of allowing Deidara to try to take the entire shaft into her throat, and failing to do so, he pulled the explosion loving blond away from her treat before he pinned his lover below him. With a swift move he spread her thighs, not that Deidara needed much convincing since at the barest nudge from her lover, the blond had willingly opened her thighs.

Blue eyes once again locked onto chocolate brown eyes as Sasori settled between her parted legs, he ran a finger along her slit before he slid it into her clutching channel, although he had more than just one finger inside of her before she was still tight. But then, no matter how many times or even how long he had fucked her in the past, give her an hour or two, depending upon how long he had 'played' with her as well ash how many times he had caused her to climax during that time, and she would be just as tight as when they had started. Thus the reason for him to be working his way up to four fingers, after all, the phallus that he was currently sporting was the largest they had ever attempted to use, Sasori didn't want to hurt his lover. However he accepted that such a large cock would cause her quite a bit of discomfort at first, but if he prepared her properly then that discomfort would quickly fade into pleasure.

His eyes gleamed with satisfaction as he watched her writhe below him, abruptly he pulled out his fingers which caused a high pitched displeased whine to come from her. However, her whine was cut short when he placed the formidable head at her entrance, her blue eyes brightened in excitement as she bit her lower lip, he leaned down and kissed her as he slowly pushed into her. She arched her hips upward into the steady push, finally his hips rested in the cradle of hers and he held still to allow her protesting muscles to adjust to his size, once she had, he slowly pulled back then slid back inside of her at the same pace that he pulled out. He kept the same rhythm and speed until she relaxed completely once she started meeting his thrusts with her own, he picked up his pack until she was clawing at his back and their hips were meeting with a sharp smacking sound.

Three hours later, Deidara was becoming hoarse, she was now on her knees and forearms, the blond was keening as Sasori pounded into her, one of the puppet users hands snaked down to the top of her mound. Her keening ratcheted upward into a shriek when her lover pinched her clit and twisted it harshly, her hands clawed at the bedding as she came for, only Kami knew the number, time. As she reeled from the earth shattering climax she felt as Sasori sheathed himself inside of her to the hilt as well as the spurts of fluid inside of her, she gasped for breath as she leaned back into her lover's chest from where he had pulled her for the last few thrusts. As she did she squirmed from the feeling of their mixed fluids making their way down her thighs in rivulets, her lover nuzzled her neck as he murmured softly, "I think that I'll let you rest now," he caressed her left cheek absently as he laid down wit her cradled in his arms. She had merely murmured a tired agreement to his statement before she slipped into slumber as Sasori ran his fingers through her long blond hair. As he did so he had softly murmured to himself, "I wonder just what you would make of me, 'Suka, for loving my partner. Deidara over half my age, by the time he had been born I had been a Shinobi for twelve years. I'm so sorry for leaving you alone, 'Suka but I couldn't take another order from the man who got my parents killed, if he hadn't of ordered them to not retreat under any circumstances they would still be alive. I wish I could let you know that I've finally found my home and that i fully plan to keep my home as long as possible."

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

Three days after Team Suna had arrived in Konoha, Izumo and Kotetsu were used to the group of Suna nins taking a shift at the gate as they waited for Teams Seven and Eight to show up, Temari had been the last one on shift. If the five kept to their unofficial schedule then Baki would be showing up soon, the pattern usually went along the lines of Kankuro, Akasuka, Gaara, Temari then Baki. Kankuro usually had a cat on his shoulder or head when he showed up, while Temari would engage the pair of guards in conversation during quiet times of the day. Gaara would just stare at the horizon while he waited for the two teams to show up, Baki acted in much the same manner as Gaara except he would engaged the two Konoha Chuunins in an occasional conversation. Akasuka on the other hand was the most chatty of the five, he would regal the guards, and anyone else who cared to listen, about Team Seven's adventures in Suna without revealing any of the techniques that the three Genin of the team had shown off while in Suna.

Shortly after Baki showed up at the gates, Izumo and Kotetsu noticed several dark spots on the horizon as well as having heard the familiar sound of a hawk calling out to another. The pair glanced at each other before they looked upward back up to those specks in the sky, Izumo quickly sent off one of his summons to inform the Hokage that Team Seven and Eight had returned back home from their mission. When the six hawks had come close enough to hear them but hadn't landed yet, Kotetsu had called out cheerfully up at them, "welcome home, Team Seven, Team Eight!"

Kakashi gave him an eye-smile as he dismounted the hawk that he and Sakura had shared on the way home with ease before he had said just as cheerfully, "it's good to be home, I missed my Dolphin while I was in Wave!"

Both Izumo and Kotetsu snorted before they said in unison while using a deadpan tone, "believe me, your Dolphin missed you just as much as you missed him!" At that proclamation a dark colored streak racked onto the scene and slammed into the Jounin, when the group could finally see what had 'attacked' the silver haired nin, all of the Konoha Shinobi began laughing. The blur had merely been a very happy academy teacher, Izumo then pointed at his old friend as he said with a bemused smile, "see, the Dolphin missed his silver Scarecrow."

At that both Iruka and Kakashi shot a glare at him as they chorused, "shut up Izumo and let us bask in being in the same village, for Kami's sake!"

Naruto leaned over his teacher as he said, "but Iruka-Sensei, Kaka-Nisan has to report to Old Man Hokage or he'll get into trouble! I promise you can ravish him after he gives his report," the blond had added thoughtlessly, his words caused more than a few of the Konoha nins to giggle, many of them would later deny it and state that they had chuckled manfully.

Baki heard a person laughing quietly when he glanced over he saw a rather beautiful man with black streaks through his blood red hair, his grey eyes were dancing in amusement as he watched the two men gaping up at Naruto. The man was wearing dark grey pants with a light blue shirt, although he wasn't wearing anything that signaled that he was, Baki thought that the man was once a Shinobi if he wasn't still one. The man then looked up at Baki, after he eyed the Suna nin for a long moment he had walked over and held out his hand as he said, "Kimihiro Uzumaki, that brat's maternal uncle, you must be Baki, Sasuke talked about you."

Baki's eyebrows rose up at that but he shook the other man's hand as he said with a wry smile, "you must been quite a bit younger than your sister then. Because you don't look a day over twenty-five," silently most of the watchers, save the ones that knew better, agreed with the Suna Jounin about Kimihiro's age.

The clan head looked amused at that statement before he said with a pleased smile, "I'm flattered that you think that, since at the age of twenty-five I never once thought that one day someone would tell me I looked that good at the age of forty-one!" At that amused statement Baki gaped at him, those who had mentally agreed with Baki also gaped in shock, their startled looks increased when Kimihiro said, "Kushina was only three years older than me." The grey eyed man was a decade older than the Suna Jounin but the older male didn't look it at all, Kimihiro had chuckled before he said in a bemused tone, "it's a semi-known fact that those of Uzumaki blood tend to age gracefully as well as being extremely long lived for Shinobi."

Camilla chuckled lightly which caused a few people to glance at her curiously, she smiled slightly as she said, "Camilla Slytherin, my clan are old allies of the Uzumaki's. As I am one of the four surviving members of my clan I decided to come to Konoha with the Uzumaki clan Head, as for the other three members they opted out of coming along." She shrugged as she said with a rueful smile, "besides of the other three members only two are of age, the third is less than a year old and is the child of one as well as the sibling of the other. Thus I highly doubt that they will ever venture to Konoha anytime soon," what the woman had neglected to state was the fact that the three members of the Slytherin Clan was beyond the veil that separated it from their original world.

Thirty minutes later, Teams Seven and Eight along with their strays entered the Hokage Tower, Genma and Raido raised an eyebrow at the sight of a very well known missing nin that was currently standing next to Sasuke and a rather feminine looking teenager. Once everyone was in the Hokage's office and the protective privacy seals were activated, the third gestured for the group to sit down, Teams Seven and Eight obeyed easily same with Kimihiro, the former Whirlpool resident had heard enough stories from his sister, Aunt and Uncle to knew that he could trust the third to honor the Yondaime's request. Camilla was composed but worried that the Hyuga's might not accept her offer of an alliance in return for them allowing her to adopt Hinata as her daughter and heir as well as her adopting another Hyuga clan member to be her new daughter's bodyguard. Zabuza and Haku were worried that they might be turned over to Kiri rather being inducted into Konoha's ranks.

After a moment Hiruzen had read over Minato's letter/order for his successor, in this case predecessor, and had heard Camilla's request that she be allowed to live in Konoha due to the old marriage ties existing between her clan and the Uzumaki clan. He had also heard her request to adopt Hinata Hyuga as her heir, he told her that she would have to speak to the Hyuga Clan Head for permission to do that. Finally the Sandaime Hokage held up a hand and ticked off his points as he said them, "number one: Kimihiro's letter of acceptance from the Yondaime stands, he may bring not only himself into the ranks of Konoha but any of his clans allies if he so chooses to, as such he may demand that we induct Zabuza, Haku and Camilla into the ranks. Number two which coincides with number one: I see no reason not to allow any of the three into Konoha's Shinobi ranks nor it's civilian ones so long as the Missing nin pair swear a loyalty oath to Naruto and Kimihiro in public. Point number three is so that the Konoha councils cannot force me to do so: I want both Haku and Zabuza to undergo a questioning by the Torture and Interrogation department before they swear any loyalty oaths in Konoha." He had stared at the pair pointedly as he had spoken, he then stood up as he said, "Anko will escort you to the Torture and Interrogation building for your questioning. Team Seven and Eight, you are dismissed until after the Chuunin Exams, unless you are absolutely needed," with that said Orochimaru's former student led the pair to the ANBU headquarters.

Once the three were inside of the building, the purple haired dango loving woman led the pair to an office where she had no doubt that the scarred Jounin would be. She was right, Ibiki was still in his office when she cleared her throat he had growled out, what is it now, Anko," without looking up at her so he didn't see the two missing nins behind his second. "I'm trying to ensure that the village can fight off an invasion if need be while the Chuunin exams take place," he continued before he glanced up at her and it took all of his self control and determination to act nonchalant about his reactions to them in the doorway of his office.

Anko pouted at him before she said with a slight flourish, "the Hokage requests that you question these two before he authorizes his citizenship papers along with their induction into Konoha's ranks. The Hokage also told me to tell you that you're not to hurt or damage them in any way unless you can prove that they would betray the oath they are to take in public."

With that said she left the man's office with a shouted, "sorry to drop off people for you to question and run but I have a date!"

As she raced off down the hall, Zabuza and Haku overheard as Ibiki muttered to himself, "just who the hell in this village is insane enough to date her!" Ibiki knew very well that she was serious about it being a date since she never hesitated to drop a one night stand in favor of her job before. The one thing that everyone in the Torture and Interrogation department knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, well besides the fact that she hated Orochimaru and wished for him to burn in a thousand fiery pits of hell, was the fact that she **LOVED** her job.

After he had muttered that Ibiki left his office behind and after he gestured for them to follow him, led the way down the hall, as he did Ibiki ran through his mental file cabinet. He immediately ruled out any civilians since they wouldn't be able to keep up with her easily, as such he also ruled out the ones she had already taken to bed and dismissed as not good enough for her. As he ran through his mental list he immediately discarded the paired Shinobi of Konoha and Gai Might out of sheer principle, the couples because the one thing that Anko held sacred was a clearly defined couple and Gai was dismissed simply because Ibiki thought he was too crazy for Anko to deal with everyday, what with his exuberance, loudness and fondness for flowery speeches.

He finally stopped at a door and shelved his mental task of figuring out who could possible be dating his second in command for later, he then entered the room. In the room were two couches, four armchairs/recliners and two coffee tables, a blond man was sitting in one of the recliners, his blond hair was in a high ponytail. He was reading a large file, he had glanced up at the sound of the door opening, upon seeing the trench coat wearing Jounin he had smiled as he said, "good evening, Ibiki."

Ibiki snorted before he nodded to the blond as he said, "hello, Inochi, dare I inquire as to what you are reading or do I even want to know?" He raised an eyebrow at his old teammate curiously as he gestured for the two that he was in charge of interrogating to have a seat.

Inochi chuckled as he set aside the folder before he said with a wry smile, "just Team Seven's Suna files, they're pretty amusing to read actually, they're almost as amusing as their Kumo files were to read!" After several long moments of Inochi's mirth filled laughter filling the air the blond had asked in between gasps for air, "who are they and whey did you bring them to the 'chamber of truth', because you hardly ever come here."

"Zabuza Momochi and his apprentice/partner, Haku Yuki," the scarred man said as he gestured at the pair seated on a couch near them before he turned to the ex-mist ninja and explained. "Our mentor, the former Head of the Torture and Interrogation department, created two rooms with special seals that only allow the truth to be spoken in them. One is this lounge, the second is an interrogation room," Inochi raised an eyebrow at that, he never heard Ibiki explaining something so thoroughly before, usually the scarred Jounin only gave the barest of information and let the person work out the answer for themselves.

Once the pair were comfortable, Ibiki began the questioning with a few simple questions that they already knew the answers to. As the pair answered each question the Head of the Torture and Interrogation department had wrote their answers down, after Ibiki's sixth question, Zabuza interrupted to ask his own, "what are you doing after this?"

Ibiki ignored the question and the way that Inochi was snickering at the rather abrupt flirtatious question. Because although it hadn't been phrased that way the tone and posture that Zabuza had used was screaming that he was flirting with the older man, the nuke nin had leaned back in his seat and stretched to show off his lean body as he purred out the question. The younger man pouted slightly when Ibiki had merely ignored his question to ask the next question in the list, finally the Head ANBU put aside the clipboard and asked in an odd tone, "are you flirting with me, Zabuza Momochi?"

After a moment, Haku saw a rather predatory grin cross his Master's face before he heard Zabuza purr in a flirty tone, "why yes, I am. How kind of you to notice."

Inochi's lips twitched in amusement when Ibiki had stared at the crocodile summoner in shock before he, although he denied it later, squawked, "why? Why flirt with me? You're two years younger than me and far less scarred!"

Abruptly Haku asked, "are we done with the interrogation?"

"Yes, you both passed the test with flying colors," Ibiki said absently as he stared into Zabuza's grey eyes, "as long as you swear the oath, you'll be inducted into Konoha's ranks within three days."

"Good," Haku said as he noticed the way that Zabuza's eyes had gone from outraged indignation, the teenager didn't now whether the emotions came from the fact that Ibiki thought he could be that shallow or if it came from Ibiki's apparent low self-esteem when it came to someone wanting him, to soft understanding then ending upon grim determination. Haku stared at the older Jounin as he thought to himself, _'Ibiki-san, I hope you realize that all you just did was make my Zabuza-Sama more determined to catch you. He's never been interested in catching anyone before, so I think he's extremely serious about you…'_

As he thought that Zabuza had gotten up from his seat, walked over to the older man and leaned over to purr in his ear, "I don't care if you're scarred or the fact that you're two years older than me. Scars show that you survived what might have killed another so don't ever accuse me of not appreciating the fact that you survived until I could meet you. Two years is nothing to some of the age difference's I've seen throughout my years as a missing nin, as for why I'm flirting with you… I'm afraid I really don't know why I'm attracted to you, but my instincts are screaming at me to capture you for my own and never let you go. I have always listened to my instincts so be prepared for a long chase my dearest Ibiki, because I won't stop until you give in and let me make you mine!" With that said, Zabuza walked over to the door as he called out over his shoulder, "let's go Haku! We have got a lot of things to do tomorrow so we better go get our rest," Haku raced out of the door after the crocodile summoner.

Inochi snickered as he glanced at the rather stunned look on Ibiki's face, whatever Zabuza had said to him had sent the Head ANBU into shock. Inochi hadn't been able to hear what the man had said to his old friend but he took the clipboard from the coffee table and read it silently to himself.

' _Question Number One: What is your full name?_

_Answer Number One: Zabuza Hiroshi Momochi_

_Answer Number Two: Haku Touya Yuki_

_Question Number Two: What is your current age?_

_Answer Number One: 26_

_Answer Number Two: 15_

_Question Number Three: What is your date of birth?_

_Answer Number One: August 15_ _th_ _, 1971_

_Answer Number Two: January 9_ _th_ _, 1982_

_Question Number Four: What was your previous rank in your former village?_

_Answer Number One: High Jounin/equivalent to Konoha and Suna's ANBU._

_Answer Number Two: No Rank, Zabuza trained me alone after he had already left his village._

_Question Number Five: If inducted into the Konoha ranks, what job would you prefer to do?_

_Answer Number One: Interrogation or A and B ranked missions._

_Answer Number Two: Medic/Healer or B and C ranked missions._

_Question Number Six: Do you have a summon?_

_Answer Number One: Yes, Crocodiles, both fresh and saltwater._

_Answer Number Two: Yes, Polar Bears._

_Question Number Seven: Why did you swear loyalty to Naruto once you found out that he was an Uzumaki?_

_Answer Number One: Because Mist lost my loyalty and the Momochi clan was once allied with the Uzumaki Clan. As such we were always slightly loyal to Whirlpool and thus the water as best as they were able to do._

_Answer Number Two: Because Zabuza-Sama did and that is good enough reason for me._

_Question Number Eight: Do you plan to break the oath once you've taken it?_

_Answer Number One: HELL NO!_

_Answer Number Two: NO!'_

As Inochi read the page silently to himself and holding back the snickers that threatened to escape him, he heard Ibiki groan before the scarred Jounin muttered, "I don't see why a pretty young nin like him would go for an old scarred up bastard like me anyway…"

Inochi snorted before he said, "number one: you're only two years older than he is, Hashirama Senju was twenty years younger than his wife so I think that two years is practically a blink of an eye compared to that. Number two: scars are a hazard of the job as a Shinobi, as such if he can't understand that then he has no business being a Jounin at all. Number three: he seems to be a very determined individual so unless you give him a much better reason than what you have been giving him then I rather doubt that he'll stop chasing you!" With that said he left his startled friend sitting on the couch after he slapped the large folder containing Team Sevens Suna files along with his clipboard before he stood up from the seat. Inochi then left the building and headed home to go see his wife as well as to check to see if they were both home and sleeping soundly.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** _:stares at muses in shock before glances at readers and blushes bright red as she pointed at the muses:_ They made me do it again! Blame them not me! Mature content below in several spots please do not read if you are either easily shocked or not mature enough to understand just where babies come from. And if you believe that the answer to that is the stork please for the sake of my sanity do not read it. By the way I managed to get an invitation to the Archive of Our Own site, all three of this series is under the pen name of Strifes_Lady with the same titles.

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**Chapter Fourteen:** _Of Meetings and Memories!_

Arashi was heading home after a short mission to Whirlpool, it was a message delivery mission but he had been happy since it gave him a chance to see his younger brother. He froze when he heard sounds of fighting to his right, he was only ten miles from the border of the ANBU patrols, so he was startled to hear the sounds of weapons against weapons, he then raced toward the sound in case it was a group of ANBU's who needed assistance. When he arrived on the branch of a tree surrounding the clearing that the fighting was taking place in he found a woman surrounded by over twenty men, all around them were fallen men, his eyebrows shot up in shock, if he was counting the bodies right she had already felled fifteen men. She had waist length silver hair and her blue eyes were like chips of ice with the cold hateful look in them at the moment, she was wielding a three bladed scythe with red blades, as she sliced through one man's torso another had growled out, "why do you resist doing your duty, Kimiko? You are a woman and thus must be a mother not a fighter, you will return home immediately and marry the man that your father chose to be your husband or you will die!"

She snorted before she growled back with a sneer, "then you'll have to kill me because I refuse to marry that bastard even if he was the last man in the Elemental countries!" With a swift move she killed the man that was closest to her, she knew that if she let any single one of them live then they would never stop coming after her, her only hope rested with the hope that if the loss of lives became to costly for them to justify sending people after her. She had a fiercely defiant look on her face and Arashi felt the urge to help her, his mother had always told him to follow his instincts so he jumped down when three man attacked her from behind. Kimiko's eyes widened in shock when a teen with black hair and blue eyes dropped down into the clearing from one of the surrounding trees, he threw a kunai at one of them men, who dropped like a stone since the weapon struck the man's heart. He then broke one of the two remaining men's neck and slit the other man's throat, the snap of the mans neck had knocked her out of her dazed shock just in time to avoid an attack and use her scythe to cut off one of the remaining twelve men's right arm just below the elbow.

Within fifteen minutes all of the men were dead, the pair glanced at each other with Kimiko's look being wary while Arashi was merely curious, after a moment Arashi held out his hand as he said, "Arashi Senju, age fifteen, Konoha Chuunin." He tilted his head to the side as his blue eyes twinkled as he inquired, "and you are?"

She blinked at his last name since the Senju Clan were well known before she took his hand in her own and shook it firmly as she said with a wry smile, "Kimiko Jashin, age twenty, and if your village accepts my plea… Hopefully a Konoha Chuunin as well," she had wiped off her scythe's blades as she had spoken before she sealed it away in a tattoo of a similar scythe on the back of her right wrist.

He looked at her with a confused expression before he asked in a puzzled tone, "what do you mean by accepting your plea?"

She sighed before she gestured at the fallen men around them as she said with a sad look, "these men are all from my own clan, my father is the second in line for headship of our clan. He has arranged a marriage between myself and a man twenty-five years my senior, the marriage is political not for love, if my father had his way I would have never even been trained how to fight. However, I activated my clan's bloodline limit at the age of five so I was trained by my grandfather, so I know how to fight, I plan to plead for sanctuary in Konoha from my clan and the arranged marriage."

Arashi eyes widened in shock before he said in a firm tone with flashing eyes, "I can't see a reason as to why Uncle Tobirama would object to giving you sanctuary. Especially if you wish to marry for love and love alone, my Father married my Mother out of love while my Uncle has remained unmarried out of love, his love died in battle so he never had the chance to marry at all. I highly suspect that both my brother and I will marry only for love or not at all," as he had spoken he had watched her seal the dead body of the leader in a scroll along with a note and the torn off patches from each enemies shoulders. She then summoned a hawk and handed over the scroll wordlessly, the hawk had nodded to her before it took off swiftly toward the northwest.

She tilted her head backwards and sighed quietly before she pinned him with her gaze as she said, "I don't suppose you would escort me to Konoha," she smirked in a sardonic fashion before she muttered, "I'm sure that your Kage would like an explanation as to why I tore up a good portion of the forest."

She stared at him bemusedly as he had bowed theatrically as he said, "I'd be most happy to escort you to my village, Jashin-San." With that said he had leapt back into the treetops, he waited until she'd joined him on the branch before he had taken off toward Konoha.

As she leapt through the trees she had called out to him, "you can call me Kimiko, you know," she then smirked at him before she said, "I don't really like my Clan's name anymore since they want to start a religion by renaming a god and brainwashing people. The worst part is that they're going to use our clan name as the god's new name, my brother and I fled our clan together, he headed one way while I headed another. I know they won't go after him since we made our Clan believe that he was my first kill of a clan member when I fled from the marriage."

Arashi frowned before he asked, "why did you do that," he glanced over at her before he continued, "wouldn't it be better to stay together?"

She shook her head as she said, "my brother fell in love with a civilian who lives to the northwest of Konoha, if our family did know that he lived then they would stop at nothing to get him back since he was the original person to be second in line for the Clan Headship."

The guards at the gate blinked at the sight of the son of their first Kage land nimbly before a woman with long silver hair landed beside him, Arashi signed in before he said, "she wishes to speak with our Kage about sanctuary in our village, I'll escort her there since I need to report in." With that he led her through the somewhat sprawling village, though it had a vast amount of room to expand if need be, he led her to the Hokage tower, as he did he ignored the odd glances that they received from the people around them.

Hashirama glanced up in time to see his eldest child stride into the room before the teen had glared at the Hokage's ANBU guard and barked, "get out now, do not return until the Hokage or I call for you to do so! The conversation that will be taking place is for his ears alone not yours," his blue eyes narrowed before he growled, "am I understood?" Both of the guards had nodded quickly and fled the room, Arashi had gained his mothers temper, although her temper was now leashed and calm it had once been enough to subdue several armies into peaceful resolutions.

After his guards had left the room Hashirama raised a single dark eyebrow at his son and the woman beside him as he asked casually, "what brings you by to see me, my dear nephew? And are you or are you not a mere Chuunin, so tell me why the hell do my guards follow your orders?"

Arashi sat down and said in a nonchalantly amused tone, "to answer your questions in reverse order, Father dearest… Yes, I'm a mere Chuunin but that is only because Mother doesn't wish for you to promote me and not because I'm not capable of being a Jounin. As for why I'm here to see you is simple I found this young woman about ten miles from the ANBU's patrol border, she was fighting off a group of men who were insisting that she be a good girl and cease her nonsense of being a fighter."

At that Hashirama raised his eyebrows in shock, if his beloved wife had heard that comment her outrage would have known no bounds, after a moment the young Hokage turned to the woman and asked, "could you tell me what you were doing fighting so close to our villages border? Also might I ask for your name and that of your Clans, as well as why my nephew brought you home with him?" He then pointed at Arashi without looking at him as he growled out, "and if I had better no hear you say, 'but Dad, she followed me home, can I keep her.' out of your mouth, my dearest son."

Arashi pouted at his Father as he watched Kimiko answer his Hokage's inquiries, "my name is Kimiko of the Jashin Clan and the reason that I was fighting so close to your village is also the reason that your nephew brought me home with him. I wished to ask Konoha for sanctuary from my clan as well as from an unwanted arranged marriage. I have no interest in marrying a man that I do not love who would order me to stop fighting, which I do love, it is an insult to my trainer to order me to stop fighting just so I can be a good broodmare for my clan!" Her chest was heaving at the end of her speech before she visibly calmed herself down enough to have her eyes twinkling in mischief as she said teasingly, "as for your son keeping me… as long as you have no objections then I don't mind him saying that I'm his. After all if my family believes me to be under the protection of your clan, they might just stop sending warriors after me so much."

Hashirama had chuckled at that while his son had gaped at them in shock, the dark eyed Kage smiled as he said, "I see no reason to deny you citizenship to Konoha nor any reason not to induct you into our ranks. Provided," he paused for a moment to stress his next comment, " that you are willing to swear a loyalty oath to Konoha itself."

She nodded before she had murmured softly, "of course Hokage-Sama, I would also like to offer to make that oath in public," she paused for a moment before she explained her reasoning, "it would be to ensure that no one could question my loyalty to this village and her people."

Hashirama interlaced his fingers as he said with a smirk, "very well, Jashin-San, welcome to the ranks of Konohagakure, you'll have to spar with a series of our Shinobi in order to determine your rank but," he smiled cheerfully. "If you are at least Chuunin in rank, I'd like to partner you exclusively with Arashi, that is if you have no objections to that," he glanced up at her but she was beaming at him so he knew that she didn't have any objections.

Arashi watched as a delighted smile curved Kimiko's lips before she said with a pleased tone, "I would be delighted if I became his partner, we worked rather well together when we fought the members of my clan who were determined to either retrieve me or kill me."

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Three days later all of Konoha's forces along with the majority of their civilians watched as a silver haired woman kneeled before the Nadaime Hokage, she had her hands placed on the seals that the Uzumaki clan had invented two years after Madara and Hashirama's fight. All outside nin's wishing to join Konoha's ranks swore an oath of loyalty to the village while maintaining direct skin contact with the seals.

As they all watched, the woman had spoken her vow in a determined and stubborn tone, "I, Kimiko Jashin, second born child of the son of the Clan head, do hereby swear that my loyalty lies with the village of Konohagakure and it's Kage. My loyalty will also belong only to the Senju and Uzumaki clans as well their allies, should the time come that I must make a choice between my clan and my oath then I shall chose my oath!"

Everyone's eyes widened at that, for someone to declare that they would forswear their entire clan it usually meant that the person either hated their clan fiercely or tat their loyalty to an oath was more important to them then their family. Even the Shinobi's eyes had widened in shock when the woman had continued as she ignored their looks, "I swear that I will never knowingly or consciously commit a treasonous act against Konohagakure, unless I am required to do so by a direct order of my Kage or as needed for a mission."

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Kensei sat up with wide eyes as he was jolted out of his dreams, as he panted to catch his breath he felt Shuhei nuzzle into his side with a sleepy murmur, absently the Visored captain ran his fingers through his lover's dark hair. As he stroked through the lieutenants hair rhythmically his breathing slowed considerably. The silver haired man closed his eyes and allowed himself to fall into a meditative state, despite how he slipped deeper and deeper into meditation his hand kept up the light petting.

Within moments, Kensei opened his eyes to find himself in his inner world, it took everything he had to not gape at the fierce storm that engulfed the upper portion of the mountain that dominated Kensei's inner world. With a determined glint to his eyes the sliver haired man marched up the mountainside, when he got closer to the storm he found his hollow and Tachikaze trying to calm the storm before it overtook the rest of his inner world.

Tachikaze glanced over her shoulder and cried out to him, "help, Master! This storm appeared suddenly and has been growing steadily ever since, we haven't been able to calm it at all," she had gestured at the hollow beside her as she had spoken.

As he strode forward, Kensei got an odd urge and unconsciously followed that urge, as he flared his Reiatsu he reached out toward the storm as he slowly closed his fist. As his right hand closed the storm calmed, when his right hand was completely closed the storm had subsided to only a blanket of dark grey clouds with an occasional bolt of lighting through them before a rumble of thunder followed it. Both of the spirits were confused but followed the light haired captain further up the mountains until the three had reached a cave near the top, within the cave laid the body of a dark haired man. The group control tell that the body wasn't Shuhei's since the man's hair was longer than the lieutenants besides the body didn't have Shuhei's scars or tattoos. With a even thinking Kensei knelt down and placed his left hand on the man's thought in order to gauge if the man was dead or alive.

As he did that the body turned into a ball of energy the slammed into Kensei's chest, the captain roared with pain as his legs buckled and he collapsed onto the ground until his forehead was pressing against it as he clutched at his chest. As the two spirits stared at their master/king in shock, Kensei writhed on the ground as his image flickered between his normal appearance and the appearance of the body that the three had found in the cave. The hollow was jolted out of his daze when his host/King keened in agony and without thinking he had hissed at Tachikaze, "watch over him. I'm going to go get Kazeshini and tell him to go get his master here!"

With that said the hollow vanished leaving the female spirit to stare at her screaming wielder with worry in her eyes, every time that she tried to go near him to comfort him the Zanpakuto spirit was thrown away by a sharp gust of wind. The wind didn't seem to want to hurt her but it was strong enough to throw her five feet from where the captain lay, six minutes after he had left the hollow returned with Shuhei and Kazeshini. The grey eyed lieutenant seemed to be slightly dazed when they arrived, Shuhei was startled when he heard Kensei howl with pain before it faded to a series of whimpers and before Tachikaze could tell him about the wind, Shuhei darted over to his older lover.

Much to the zanpakuto spirits surprise the wind didn't stop, or even try to stop, Shuhei's rush to the older Shinigami's side, as he was reaching for Kensei's shoulder the silver haired man's appearance flickered again. At the same moment that his hand touched Kensei's shoulder, the Visored's eyes snapped open, revealing piercing blue eyes, when those eyes caught sight of Shuhei he sighed in relief, he then had murmured softly, "hello, my love…" Kensei then pulled the surprised man down into a passionate kiss, just before their lips met Shuhei heard his lover saying, "Kimiko, my dearest wife… Shuhei, my precious and lovely second, how I love you so…"

At first Shuhei struggled to break free of the kiss to ask Kensei just what the hell he meant by that but Kensei's grip was too strong for him to break and his lovers skillful touch combined with the intoxicating kiss caused the dark haired man to cease his struggles. All three spirits stared at the intertwined figures for a long moment before they fled the scene since Shuhei's hands had slipped below Kensei's waistband which had caused the Captain to let out a muffled moan as his lover groped his ass. Soon after the three spirits had fled, the intertwined pair had stripped each other out of their clothes, Kensei had pinned his lover beneath him and bit the left side of his neck where the shoulder met the neck. The bite was deep enough to draw blood and Shuhei had hissed in pleasured pain, normally, Kensei was rather gentle with him as if the elder man was terrified that he would break Shuhei if he though him with too firm of a touch.

Shuhei always thought that was a little hypocritical of his lover since his captain never had a problem with not pulling his punches, hits or sword strikes when they sparred so just why he did it when they were making love was something that Shuhei would never, ever understand. The dark haired man was startled when instead of his usual habit of driving the grey eyed man out of his mind with foreplay, Kensei had begun stretching his lover. It would seem that today, Kensei was impatient since he used the bare minimum to stretch his lover before he slammed inside of Shuhei's tight heat. That action alone tore a scream of pained pleasure from the lieutenants throat while Kensei snarled in satisfaction at the clench of muscles surrounding him.

Thankfully Kensei had held still to savor the tight grasping channel long enough for Shuhei to adjust to his girth and allow his muscles to relax, Kensei then pulled back before he slammed back in, his actions caused a pleasured yelp to exit the younger man's mouth. Kensei kept to the slow yet hard pace until Shuhei was a moaning, panting wreck below him, the older man slowly upped his pace until his hips were smacking against Shuhei's with barely a pause between each slap. When the grey eyed shinigami howled out his climax Kensei had slowed down until his pace matched his previous one and once his lover had caught his breath again he started pounding back into him a slightly faster pace.

Over the course of an hour Kensei brought Shuhei to yet another climax and held him the edge of a third, in the end of the hour Shuhei was begging Kensei to let him cum already. After another two minutes of constant begging from his lover Kensei finally acquiesced to his lover's pleading and allowed Shuhei to reach his third climax just as Kensei reached his first. The grey eyed man felt as his lover buried himself into Shuhei to the hilt as he let himself go and allowed himself to climax as well, Shuhei blacked out from the sudden release as he screamed out his ecstasy to the sky.

When he woke from passing out, Shuhei was startled by how the thought of, _'Arashi has always adored pleasing me…but this takes the cake!'_ As his grey eyes snapped open, his mind was overcome by memories from a life long since passed for him. As they did he clutched at the elder man's shoulders as he bit his lower lip in pain to keep from screaming. The memories of that life's final moments had come flooding back to him, as he calmed down Shuhei had muttered to himself, "at least I know that Kimi-Chan got out of the village…"

Kensei had nuzzled Shuhei's cheek as he whispered in the younger man's ears, "there is that, and now we know just why we seemed to know each other before without having met each other… I always wondered just how you knew that I preferred certain things over others when I make a point of not favoring anything I like more than anything else…"

Shuhei's eyes gleamed mischievously as he had asked in a teasing tone, "what make you believe that it wasn't merely my observational skills at work that allowed me to glean those things about you?"

Kensei chuckled as he eyed his lieutenant with bemusement in his eyes before he said with a wry smile, "that excuse might have worked if, and only if, you hadn't been able to predict which foods were my favorites before the first day was out!"

Shuhei held up a finger as he said, "point made," he had his head nestled into the right side crook of Kensei's neck as he had spoken so his words were slightly muffled. Kensei laughed at that before he tipped his lover's face upward and kissed him softly before he rolled them so they were lying on their sides. Together the pair slipped back into slumber, which was peaceful on both sides this time, as they did Shuhei had thought to himself, _'I hope that Yoban and Midoko are together, those two don't deserve to be separated, after all they loved each other so much…'_

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Shunsui looked at his mortal lover with a well hidden expression of amusement, the tall silent teen was playing with his pet Kneazle by keeping a feather toy just out of his reach, the cat-like creature was standing on his hind legs to make himself even taller. He meowed in frustration as he dropped back down onto all fours and sulked, Chad began to twitch the toy on the floor just out of his reach, the rather erratic movement caught attention and the Kneazle pounced onto the toy. However, Chad pulled the toy out of his reach just as pounced at it, the Kneazle snarled and chased after the toy with a determined look on his face.

This game continued for an hour before dropped to the ground in exhaustion, he curled up in a ball and began to sleep, at that Chad put away the toy before he sat down next to Shunsui. For once the teen and his pet were visiting Shunsui instead of the other way around, thanks to the sizable inheritance that Chad had from not only his parents estate but also his grandfathers, Chad wouldn't have to work a day in his life unless he wished to. As it was, Chad and Ichigo had decided to hold of on picking a collage until the rest of their friends had decided upon one as well, Chad had told everyone that he was going to get a degree to be a veterinarian since he liked animals so much. Ichigo had told his friends that being a Co-Head of a entire family was a job and a half by itself, not counting his job as a substitute shinigami as well as being a mother to an almost two year old girl. He had remarked that when he went to collage he would be going for a combined degree in business and management majors with a bachelors degree in history.

Tatsuki had chosen to get a degree in physical education along with another degree in chemistry, Tatsuki liked to make things go boom thus the reason that both sets of twins liked her so much. No one was surprised when Uryu had stated that his goal was to become a world famous fashion designer, he had also told everyone that Grimmjow was taking classes at the Hattori Nutrition Collage along with attending classes more regularly at the Le Cordon Bleu of Tokyo.

Orihime wasn't too sure what it was that she wanted to do with her life but she found Hogwarts to be interesting to live and work in, she had taken to helping Madam Pomfrey as well as Isshin in the infirmary when she could. She would, on occasion, go work at Saint Mungo's for a few hours a day, during one such trip she had come across a young boy who had been bitten by a large dog the night before, later identified to be Fenrir Greyback, and since she hadn't been informed that the boy had been bitten by a werewolf not a dog she had healed it without thinking twice. The healers were shocked when the next time they ran the tests on the boy, he had come back completely negative of the Lycanthropy virus, the boy then told them about how a nice red haired healer had come in and healed him with the help of two fairies. The Head healer of the ward had shaken his head when he heard the boy say that before he muttered, "there she goes again, Inoue Orihime once again does the impossible…" When the boy's parents and the other healers glanced at him in puzzlement he explained, "she's the same healer who cured Frank and Alice Longbottom, thus giving their son back his parents and returning two of the Wizarding Worlds best Auror's back to duty."

Shunsui was jolted out of his thoughts of the memory that Isane and Percy had been glad to give them, by Chad asking softly, "are you done with your paperwork or are you just taking a break?"

The Eighth division captain chuckled lightly as he said with a loving smile, "I just finished the last of it so I'm all yours for the rest of the day and all of the weekend."

The long haired man shivered as Chad murmured in his ear, "good, we haven't spent too much time alone together lately," when Shunsui pulled back far enough to stare into Chad's eyes, he noticed that the other man's eyes were dark with lust. The older man yelped in surprise when Chad suddenly swept him into a bridal style carry, Shisui clutched at his younger lover's shoulders and neck as the teen carried him into the bedroom.

Chad had shut the door behind them firmly before he walked over to the bed, Kushina had gifted all the couples of the Seireitei with western style beds with winks and a slyly stated, " _now you can pin your lover down and do whatever you want to them without them being able to do the same!"_ At first Shunsui, Gin, Kensei and Byakuya had been pleased with the gift but the four soon realized that it also allowed their lovers to turn the tables on them if they so desired to do so. Shunsui swallowed thickly as he caught the look on Chad's face and in his eyes, the last time his mortal lover wore that look the Sake-loving captain hadn't been able to sit properly for a week straight. Although he had loved every minute of the activities that had made him that sore the paperwork had been difficult to do when he couldn't sit down at his desk to do it.

The dark-skinned teen slowly stripped his older lover out of his rather relaxed style of uniform, first to come off was Shunsui's pink kimono, which was laid aside over a chair. The next to be removed was his Haori and upper garments, both of which were hung up inside of the closet, next Chad removed the belt holding up Shunsui's pants, the sash that had been holding his upper garments together as well as holding Katen Kyokotsu securely in place was already beside him. The cloth belt quickly joined it beside Shunsui's right hip, the shinigami captain shivered with arousal as he watched Chad run the sash through his fingers thoughtfully as he stared down at the grey eyed man.

Finally Chad placed both the sash and belt aside, out of the corner of the teens eye he caught sight of Shunsui's pout, it had surprised the two of them that the older man seemed to enjoy having his lover tying him up and being at his mercy, existent or non existent as the case may be sometimes. However, the captain's sullen look transformed into an excitedly pleased one when Chad reached into one of the two duffle bags he had brought with him to the Seireitei and pulled out several ropes of varying lengths. Shunsui had squirmed slightly as he wondered to himself which position he would be tied into as well as pondering just who intricate the knot work would be. On occasion Chad would use a rougher rope on his older lover so the marks would last longer on his lovers light skin and the captain's pulse raced when he felt the rope's texture as it landed beside him on the bed.

Chad noticed the pleased look in Shunsui's eyes as the mixture of hemp and jute ropes landed beside him, for the design that the teen would be using on his body, he didn't want to use the rougher rope on Shunsui's wrists or other visible area's. Nor did he wish to use the rough rope on his lovers more delicate areas, he could leave less eyebrow raising marks there instead. As he walked back to the bed Chad had activated the wards to keep people away from Shunsui's house unless there was an emergency that absolutely required the captains attention or until the pair wanted visitors. Chad, by both his nature and his upbringing by his grandfather, was a gentle lover, the teen didn't like inflicting pain but could, however that wasn't what Shunsui wanted from him when the teen had him tied down anyway. Chad's mere physical presence could cause his lover to feel as if he could let go completely and not only could he trust Chad to handle everything while he did so but Chad could ensure that he didn't have to think about himself because the teen would do that for him.

Once all of the ropes were in place, Chad stepped backward from the bedside where he had been standing in order to tie the older man up, he eyed the ropes crisscrossing his lovers body and holding the man's arms behind his back as more rope held his thighs wide open. The same rope held the Shinigami's calves to his thighs, the position left Shunsui very venerable to Chad's every whim, a fact that would cause many to panic if they didn't have absolute faith in their lover was that the rope that held Shunsui captive absorbed the Reiatsu of the person it held bound. Due to that fact, Shunsui had to trust his lover completely and when the Shinigami had first been bound it had been in the mortal world with rope from there. Chad had been startled when his lover had brought the Seireitei special rope with him during a visit before he had requested that Chad tie him up and have his way with the older, more experienced man.

Chad had realized shortly after that night that Shunsui felt he couldn't simply lie there and let Chad please him, the only way that the shinigami could accept the caresses was if he was tied securely. In other words, if Chad wanted to focus on Shunsui's pleasure over his own he would have to first bind his lover with rope to stop him from reciprocating the touches that the teen bestowed upon his body. The wards had come about due to a one time incident where Nanao had burst into Shunsui's house and bedroom in order to frantically tell him that Chad had never returned to the Eighth division barracks. Once Nanao's mind had caught up with her eyes she had blushed bright red, surprisingly Shunsui had flushed the same color that she had at the sight of his lieutenant in the doorway, she had stammered an apology for the intrusion before she had fled. When she had come in Shunsui had been tied down spread eagle on the bed with his legs wrapped around Chad's hips as he pounded into him.

For neigh on two months, neither Nanao or Shunsui could look each other in the eye without blushing, a fact that had caused great amusement for all of the Seireitei since it was assumed for years that Shunsui had absolutely no shame at all and that Nanao was too used to her captains antics to bat an eyelash at them anymore.

Shunsui was brought out of his thoughts by a light slap on his inner thigh, as he stared up at Chad with startled eyes he heard as the teen had purred out in a husky tone, much like his potential animagus form, "keep your thoughts on me and me alone, my lovely one…" The first time that Chad had called the elder man by that affectionate moniker Shunsui had spluttered incoherently before he vehemently denied being lovely at all. Chad on the other hand was of a much different opinion than his lover so he persuaded the older man that not only did he perceive that Shunsui was quite lovely but also that beauty was n the eye of the beholder and was thus subjective to each persons own view.

Once the teen was sure that he had one hundred percent of his lover's attention once more, he began to toy with the older man by first stripping off his own clothes, which caused a whine of discontent to erupt from the older man since Shunsui adored being the person to strip his lover of his clothes. After the teen was naked he pulled out a series of toys from the same duffle bag that he pulled the ropes from, one of the objects was a leather strap with clasps which he promptly placed on the nightstand. He also set a feather, two dildos and a large plug there as well, the tube of lubricant that he retrieved was tossed onto the bed beside the trussed up captain. As he eyed the toys that the teenager had pulled out of the bag Shunsui inwardly wondered just how his lover planned to use them on him and in what order.

While he was up from the bed, Chad had placed his hand on Katen Kyokotsu's sheathes as he said softly, "You two might want to occupy yourselves, I plan to take advantage of having your master at my mercy tonight." The two swords pulsed gently at that, as if to acknowledgement of his words and signaling their agreement to occupy themselves so as to not disturb Chad's fun with Shunsui. After that was done Chad stalked back to the bed, he paused for a brief moment beside the bag before he continued on to the bed, he scooped up the feather from the nightstand, to Shunsui confusion Chad merely placed it on the bed near the lube and began kissing his bound lover.

Once Shunsui was reduced to panting due to the kiss, Chad traced along the ropes with his tongue, he then lingered on the older man's nipples until they were erect and begging for attention. During his brief pause on the way back to the bed Chad had retrieved another set of toys, with quick movements he applied a pair of nipple clamps to Shunsui's nipples. Attached to the clamps was a semi-heavy chain, that when tugged caused the pressure induced by the clamps bite to increase in small increments which would allow the older man to adjust to the pressure more easily. A gentle tug on the chain caused Shunsui to keen from the strange pleasure from the clamps pressure while the teen continued down his lover's chest until he reached the Shinigami's straining erection. As Chad ran his tongue along the quivering shaft he retrieved the feather and once the entire pulsating rod was wet he traced the object lightly over the phallus. Despite his restrained body Shunsui's hips still made the effort of twitching spasmodically to get away from the light and ticklish touch.

As his younger lover teased his cock, Shunsui panted from the feeling of having a firm unyielding pressure on his nipples, all of the sudden he felt the teasing touch on his cock cease before it was suddenly surrounded by a wet sucking heat. If Kushina hadn't included silencing wards into the do not disturb wards then the scream that ripped from Shunsui's throat by his sudden climax would have caused everyone to hear it to believe that the Eighth division captain was being tortured.

As he was coming down from his orgasmic high Shunsui felt Chad slip the leather band around his cock and fasten it securely, Shunsui's eyes widened when he understood that unless Chad allowed it, that orgasm that he just had would be his last until Chad decided otherwise. With that thought in mind he shivered when Chad undid the nipple clamps to allow blood to rush to and from them which caused them to sting pleasurably, he watched as Chad set the clamps on the table beside the bed. Chad then picked up the lube and coated two of his fingers with the slippery substance, while his non lubed hand distracted Shunsui by tweaking his pleasurably sore nipples, Chad's lubed hand was teasing the older mans entrance. After several moments of this the muscles guarding the opening relaxed slightly, in fact only just enough for Chad to slip a single finger inside of his lover effortlessly.

As he nipped and licked his way up his lovers inner thighs Chad had murmured reassurances to the older man and once he felt the shinigami was relaxed enough he began to drive the finger in and out of him as he continued to convince the tight muscle into surrendering to his will. Once he felt that it was relaxed enough for him to do so, the teenager slipped his second finger inside of his lover, as soon as it was inside of Shunsui the teen crooked his fingers and pressed firmly into the Shinigami's prostate. The constant pressure on the organ caused Shunsui's back to arch as much s it could while a scream of pleasure that was close to pain ripped its way from his throat as the Shinigami saw a shower of shooting stars.

As the two fingers stretched Shunsui's guardian muscle, Chad had prepared the slimmer one of the two dildos and once the elder man was taking the two fingers with ease, Chad had removed them from his lover's body. Before the older man could begin to protest the loss of the pleasure from the hammering digits, Chad had slammed the dildo into him until the base of it was stretching Shunsui's entrance. The ten inch long object graduated in size from the width of a single finger wide at the tip until the width of four fingers wide at the base, the sudden stretch caused Shunsui's eyes to widen in shock as his muscles clamped down on the width stretching them. After giving him a moment to adjust, Chad began to piston the long hard object in and out of his lover, he had changed the angle of the inside thrust every time he had thrust the dildo into his lover until Shunsui had flushed in pleasure as he moaned uncontrollably. Once he had gotten that reaction from his older lover he only adjusted the inward angle until Shunsui had wailed out a keening scream. As soon as he had received that reaction from the older man Chad had picked up the pace significantly as well as how hard he was thrusting the thick object into his now screaming lover.

As he watched his lover shake himself through a dry orgasm, Chad had slicked up the second dildo, which was three and a half inches in diameter but unlike the one currently inside of Shunsui, it wasn't tapered. This one was shaped exactly like a true cock, which included the helmet shaped head, once again Chad suddenly switched the instrument of impalement for his lover, however he had remembered who the first dildo had been angled to impact his lover's defenseless prostate. As such when he thrust the larger dildo inside of his lover, he had been able to score a direct hit against the organ on the first rough thrust, an action that caused a hoarse scream to erupt from his elder lover's throat. Chad had kept up the pounding to his lover's pleasure center until he had once again shook in a dry orgasm, this time however, when Chad had plucked the dildo from Shunsui's depths, he replaced it with his own cock.

Shunsui's hips met Chad's thrusts as best as best it could while his head thrashed from side to side at the pleasure coursing through his veins as Chad pounded into him relentlessly. Fifteen minutes of continuous pounding later, Chad drove himself hilt deep into Shunsui and the captain felt as Chad came inside of him. Shunsui had whimpered but didn't beg when Chad had ignored the elder man arousal as he pulled out of him, his grey eyes widened in shock as Chad slid the plug that was sitting on the nightstand into his stretched opening in order to seal the teens semen inside of the shinigami. His eyes had widened even further when Chad untied binding him after he made a show of removing another plug from his own entrance before he rolled them so Shunsui was on top of him.

The captain slid inside of his mortal lover with easily thanks to the large plug that had served to stretch him in preparation of this one moment. After only a short while to savor the lightness of Chad's heat the Shinigami began pounding into his lover heedless of the fact that he was still wearing the cock ring that prevented his orgasm. When Chad reached won and unsnapped the leather ring, Shunsui's orgasm finally broke free, the captain came so hard that he was very close to passing out and once he was certain that he wouldn't be crushing his lover, he did faint from the sudden release.

Chad ran his fingers through the long wavy brown hair of his passed out lover before he pulled the covers over them both, as he slipped into sleep, Chad had thought to himself, _'I'll put away the rope and toys in the morning. Somehow I rather doubt that Shunsui will wake up before I will anyway after that last orgasm he had…'_

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Naruto trudged up to his apartment door, Kakashi had dropped him off at his apartment building before he went off to walk Sakura home, Sasuke had already left with Baki back to his compound earlier. The blond unlocked the front door and walked inside, as he did he had dropped the scroll containing his supplies and the tent onto the table in the entrance way. He then heard a soft chuckle from the doorway leading to the kitchen from the living room, when he looked up he was surprised yet happy to see a very familiar red haired, dragon masked individual leaning against the doorjamb. Her eyes were sparkling with suppressed amusement as she said in a soft tone, "welcome home, my little one, how did your mission go?" She had cocked her head to the right as she inquired that before she pushed away from the doorway and made her way back into the living room to stand beside him.

He was startled to realize that she had taken off her clawed gloves and that her forearms were covered by a pair of bracers, one of which had a crow etched onto it and the bird was holding onto a scythe while the other bracer had an odd dog on it. She finally ruffled his hair and lightly scratched his scalp absently, that duel action caused a purr to slip from his throat. After a moment of that he had leaned into her side as he explained the entire mission to her in a very content tone as she continued to scratch at his head absently as she listened to him attentively. "The mission went fine and the bridge from Wave to the mainland was finished, it's builder and designer named it _**The Great Naruto** **Bridge**_ ," he added absently before he said with a happy look on his face, "oh and we brought four people back to Konoha to join it's ranks!" At her curious glance down at him the blond had explained with a cheerful smile, "two nuke nins swore their loyalty to me during the mission, the third person we picked up on the way back home to Konoha and the fourth is, believe it or not, my mother's younger brother!"

At that she blinked at that before she exclaimed in shock, "little Kimi-Chan is in Konoha right now?!"

Naruto goggled up at her for that comment as he said in a questioning tone that implied that she was insane, "Kimi-Chan, you call my maternal uncle Kimi-Chan? How do you get away with that and how can I manage it?!"

Ryuu laughed as she turned back to enter the kitchen as she said over her shoulder," your mother used to call him that all the time you know. And as long as he doesn't hear me saying it then what he doesn't know won't hurt me!"

Naruto blinked at that but followed her into the other room as he replied absently, "well, I know that I won't tell him so your secret is safe with me! Uh, Ryuu-Okasan, did you give Dobby the night off again or something," he raised an eyebrow at the sight of the ANBU cooking, or rather preparing to cook. Some sort of casserole was on the counter and as he sniffed at the pan he asked in a questioning tone before he glanced up at her, "what is this anyway, Ryuu-Okasan?"

She ruffled his hair as she said while inwardly she wished wistfully that he would drop her ANBU code name from the title, "it's chicken and rice casserole," she neglected to mention that the casserole contained broccoli within it, after she said that she placed the pan into the oven before she took out a loaf pan from the cupboard. Naruto stared at it in shock since he had been unaware that he even owned one of those, he watched as she pulled out some ground meat, mushrooms, a single onion and cheese from the fridge before she pulled out a jar full of a red substance from the cupboard next to the appliance. She coated the pan with nonstick cooking spray, she then combined the meat with one and a half cups of the red substance, all of the mushrooms but only after she had sliced them all, half a cup of the cheese and the onion after she had finely chopped it. As he watched her, she had incorporated the ingredients until they were well mixed she then placed the mixture into the loaf pan.

After that she put it into the oven with the casserole as she washed her hands as she said, "yes, I gave Dobby the night off," she then smirked over her shoulder before she turned around and walked over to the table to sit down. She rested her elbow on the table and rested her head against her right hand as she waited for the casserole to get done from it's position on the top rack of the oven. As she stared at her son, Kushina asked softly with a hidden smile, "what had you so down when you came home, my little one?"

Naruto sighed before he said with an unhappy tone while he stared down at the table with a morose expression on his face, "Team Seven is going to be in the Chuunin Exams this upcoming examinations, I'm just worried about whether or not we're ready for it…"

Her eyes softened in understanding before she said, "I'm sure you're more than ready and if you're not then, Kakashi-Kun will know where the three of you need to improve." A beep went off and she glanced over at the oven, as she stood up from the table she said absently, "usually the first test is of your ability to obtain information subtly, then a test of your survival skills and item appropriation techniques. The third test is usually a tournament where you show off your fighting skills and your ability to determine if you can hold your own in a fight or if you must call for a retreat. After all, a Chuunin is often sent on missions and usually aren't as powerful as Jounin's, your mother and Iruka-San are the exceptions not the rule, of course if they were promoted to Jounin then they wouldn't have as much freedom as they usually and they would be sent off on more missions…" She shook herself out of her ruminations before she muttered to herself, "if you can't determine when a fight should stop then you clearly aren't ready to be a Chuunin, but I have the feeling that the three of you will be outstanding in the fights."

As she had spoken Naruto's expression brightened and watched as twenty minutes after she had placed the meat dish in the oven Kushina pulled out the casserole, as she did Naruto had blinked a bit before he said, "so, as long as we cheat without being noticed much or at all in the first test then we pass. Then if we successfully manage to finish the task that is required of us in the second test we'll pass it, but in the third test we'll be on our own, right?"

She laughed a bit as she said with a bemused grin that he couldn't see due to her mask but he could tell she had due to her twinkling eyes, "got it in one! The first two tests are to determine your ability and the ability of your teammates in stressful situations, the third test is to see if you are capable of standing on your own two feet or even be fit to lead a team of your own." She bowed her head as she murmured, "that's one reason that the village came so hard down on Sakumo, even Chuunins have to pass the test of whether they would choose the mission over the lives of their comrades. Back then the village believed that pushing back the beginning of the war was more important then the lives of two Jounin, as such Sakumo should have completed the mission then rescued his comrades. But Sakumo chose to abandon the mission and rescue his comrades, the village made him a pariah, which eventually caused him to kill himself to clense the shame from his family name and allow Kakashi to stand on his own two feet. For the loss of her partner, the sudden orphaning of a boy she considered her son and for the agony that had caused Sakumo to kill himself… Your Mother never forgave the village at all," as she had spoken her voice was low and dark with both remembered pain as well as intense rage.

Naruto's eyes had widened at that, he stared at the bowed head of his beloved Ryuu-Okasan as she said in a harsh tone, "and if your mother could only find out what this village has done to her baby… Then her wrath would know absolutely no bounds and even compared to back then I think her rage over you would be even harsher than it was over Sakumo's death. Comparing them might be akin to a soft warm towel directly from the dryer to the face and the most damaged dealing move she could do when it comes to revenge over you…" While she had spoken her voice had dropped even more into a vicious growl as she had snarled out the rest and she glanced over at the blue eyed blond her eyes had flashed as she said with gleeful wrath, "and your father would be even more angry about this than your mother." She's smirked before she said with a rueful tone as the mask hid her smug look, "quite frankly that's if they ever hear about this but since they're dead that's highly unlikely but then again…they have managed the impossible before…"

Naruto stared at her blankly before he said in a deadpan tone, "that is exactly what Kaka-Sensei tells all three of us when he talks about them, he said that my mom seemed to like doing three utterly impossible things before breakfast. I don't quite know what he meant by that though…" He then cocked his head to the right as he asked curiously, "can I put that language seal you put on me onto my teammates, it would be useful if the three of us knew a language that not many other people can speak…"

Those fierce gold eyes shot him a strange look as she pulled out the pan of meat, she then slathered it with the rest of that strange red substance before she topped it with the rest of the cheese. She then put the pan back into the oven and stated in a thoughtful tone, "you could easily place it on Sasuke but unless you adopt Sakura then you won't be able to place it one her." At the confused look on his face she elaborated with a tilt of her head that somehow conveyed ironic amusement, "the seal that I placed on you was the end result of three months of research, quite simply you don't have that time to work on a seal just for Sakura. The seal can only be placed upon a blood relation by someone who can speak the tongue that the seal is to teach and translate, if you want to be able to use the tongue in the Chuunin Exams then you'll have to blood adopt her or allow Sasuke to adopt her."

She sighed at his still slightly lost look, as she stared at him the former Chuunin thought to herself, _'sometimes Minato our son acts just as dense as you, unfortunately he's just as cute as you are when you're being dense…'_ "Sasuke is directly blood related to you since your maternal grandmother, that's your mom's mother, was the twin sister to Sasuke's Paternal Grandmother, which is to say his Father's Mother," she explained without looking at him since she was pulling the meat dish from the oven to cool slightly before she cut it.

Naruto's eyes widened in both shock and comprehension, comprehension over her explanation of why he could place the seal on Sasuke with no problem while the shock stemmed from his and Sasuke's direct blood relation. The fact that their mother's were sisters made Kushina and Fukaku cousins, thus their children were cousins as well, Naruto frowned lightly as he rubbed his chin in thought. "how can me or Sasuke adopt Sakura by blood? I thought you could only adopt someone via legal documents," he looked up at her with a puzzled expression as he queried her over the odd statement that she had made, well it was odd to him anyway, but perfectly logical to Kushina, A.K.A. Ryuu of the ANBU.

She tapped her chin lightly with her pointer finer of her left hand thoughtfully before she pulled out two scrolls from her weapons pouch as she said to him, "here, the blood adoption ritual with all the marks to correspond to how you want to adopt a person is in the first scroll while the second contains the language seal. To lock the seal upon a specific language you have to be speaking that language while you are activating the seal or it won't work at all, got it?" She raised an eyebrow at her son from behind her mask and stared at him with an expectant air about her so even though he couldn't see her expression he could tell what she wanted from him. So he nodded in response and listened to her again as she first beamed at him before she said, "good, then the three of you will do fine!" She then turned back to the pan of meat and cut the loaf into slices that were about a half an inch thick, she then put them into a large container before she placed them in the fridge for him to snack on later.

Once that was done she placed her hand on his shoulder as she said, "I'll probably be too busy to visit you until after the Chuunin Exams so I want to take a good look at that seal of yours, alright, little one?" The blue eyed boy looked up into her bright gold eyes before he nodded in agreement to her soft request. "Alright then, lets go get you lying down, that position will be easier on us both and you can drift off into sleep once I'm through looking at the seal."

With that said she shooed him off in the direction of his bathroom and bedroom, as she listened to the shower start she began to put the leftover casserole into several dishes for Naruto to have as a few quick meals while she was gone. Five minutes after the shower cut off she had tapped on the door to her son's bedroom and after a brief moment he called out for her to enter. When she opened the door she found her son in the bed with his favorite walrus cap on his head, she smiled at him cheerfully from behind her mask as she entered the room. She then walked over to the bed and knelt down beside him, he watched as she placed her hand against his stomach, she soon slipped into a meditative state and slipped into the seal easily.

However, when she appeared in the room that usually contained the giant demon fox, she found it utterly empty of his prescence, instead she found a door in the back of the cage that normally contained her former beast. She stared at the empty cage for a moment in stunned silence as she blinked in puzzlement, she then entered the cage with a shrug once she reached the door she opened it to find a rather large forested valley surrounded by mountains. She sighed before she said in an aggrieved tone, "finding Kurama in this will take a while, I just know it…" With a soft grumble of discontent she picked a random direction and began walking with the hope that she would stumble across the red haired demon. After twenty minutes, or at least what felt like twenty minutes, of searching she stumbled across the fox, he was in his smaller fox form which was the size of a Inuzuka Ninken. He was contentedly crunching on a large bone that appeared to be from a large deer but it was hard to tell if it actually came from such an animal or not.

An evil grin appeared upon her face before she had transformed into her animagus form and pounced upon the large canine, Kurama had yelped in shock and ran for cover, after a moment he realized that nothing was chasing after him. So he looked back to find his former host rolling on the ground laughing, he shifted into his more humanoid form before he pouted as he whined, "Shina-Chan, don't do that to me! You scared me almost half to death for a moment," of course his complaint only made her laugh harder. Kurama then rolled his eyes before he asked her while he leaned over her, "so what brings you to visit me, my dearest and most lovely former host?"

She finally calmed her laughter enough to sit up, she placed herself in a lotus position before she said, "I need to ask you a favor." He glanced at her with raised eyebrows at that, he was curious as to what favor she could be speaking of, at his obvious curiosity she explained, "I need Naruto to perform the second version of the Impure World Resurrection Jutsu. My mission for the King of the Shinigami is complete, as such Minato and I can return home whenever we want but it would be hard to explain just where we have been and why we only just now returned. The only real drawback to us returning via this method is that we might not be the only relations of Naruto's to return from the dead if he calls. I simply don't know if all or any of them have the willpower to resist the pull of the jutsu on their souls," she sighed as she thought of all of the relatives that she had managed to run into after either dying or being reincarnated. "The favor I need you to do me is to teach the jutsu to Naruto, I know that you know it since Grandmother helped Uncle Tobirama create the second version as an improvement to the first. I also need you to supply him with chakra if he accidentally manages to summon more people than his own chakra could call forth," she added anxiously.

Kurama thought it over before he nodded as he said in a fond tone, "I'll supply him with the chakra if he needs it but he already knows the jutsu, he learned it when he stole the forbidden arts scroll. Tobirama must have added both versions to it after he was made Hokage," he then looked at her with a fond smile before he added, "I'll be sure to remind him about the jutsu if he ever needs backup that neither his team nor I can give him. I swear it on the Sage of the Six Path's grave and soul, I swear that I will help him perform it and walk him thought it if need be!"

With a relieved smile Kushina hugged the demon as she murmured, "thank you, Kurama," she then pressed a soft kiss to his left cheek as she said happily, "you're the best protector a mother could want for her child." With that said she faded from the seal/inner world in her son, she left behind a rather confused fox, who merely shrugged after a moment and went back to crunching on his bone. Kushina then opened her eyes to find herself in Naruto's bedroom once more, the small blond was snoozing on the bed so with a smile she tucked him in before she left the apartment and Konoha behind.

Before she left the village, Kushina detoured briefly to the Uchiha compound and found her cousin's youngest son tucking Gaara into bed, she had found out that it was easy to get in and out of Konoha if she used her animagus form. Once it was discovered that Naruto could call them the cheetah's had been granted free reign to come or leave the village as they desired, so she sat and watched as Akasuka appeared in the doorway before he said something to Sasuke. It was too soft for her to be able to hear but it had Sasuke standing up from his crouched position beside Gaara's bed and leaving the room with Akasuka. As she watched him leave the room she saw him brush past the thirty one year old Yondaime Kazekage, she was surprised to find a look that she never thought she would see on Akasuka's face directed at a teenager. Her eyebrows shot up in shock and she almost shifted back into human form but managed to hold back the shifting just in time, she stared as the red haired Jounin shook himself out of his thoughts before he left Gaara's room as well and headed to his own.

As she snuck out of the village that she was still, in her mind, calling home, Kushina had thought to herself as she remembered that look, _'I wonder what is going on with those two… I could have sworn that Akasuka was looking at Sasuke with love and devotion in his eyes, but that can't be right… The one thing that Akasuka had made absolutely forbidden in his village was for anyone between the ages of twelve to fifteen to take a lover more than two years their senior and unless their lover was at least twelve a younger lover was also forbidden. One of the things that the pair of us strenuously agreed on was that pedophiles were disgusting, wrong and vile, as such those of that ilk were best put to death for their crimes. Then again, so long as they don't have any sexual contact beyond kissing before Sasuke turns fifteen years old, then by Konoha and Suna's laws he wouldn't be a pedophile since after they reach the age of fifteen they are assumed to be able to choose a lover older than them by more than two years… So as long as they wait until the laws are on their side I'll be happy for them, but in order for that to work Sasuke will have to remain pure…'_


	16. Chapter Fifteen: Of Reunions, Shopping and Explorations!

**A/N: Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to me! Here is a present from me to you on this joyous day of my birth!**

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**Chapter Fifteen:** _Of Reunions, Shopping and Explorations!_

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As Zabuza and Haku were being questioned, Asuma along with Shikaku, Tsume, Hiashi as well as Choza were called to the Hokage's office. When they arrived they all saw the Sandaime speaking quietly with a man, both men had looked up as the door opened and the Hokage smiled at them as he said, "good, you have all arrived."

Asuma put a cigarette in his mouth absently as he asked, "why did you call us all here, Father? And who is this," he nodded at Kimihiro as he had questioned the Hokage before he lit the cigarette.

At that the Hokage chuckled quietly as he said, "some of you might actually remember him from the few times he and his family visited relatives in Konoha when he had been a child. This is Kimihiro Uzumaki, current Head of the Uzumaki clan, as for why I called you all here… I needed witnesses to watch as he gave his oath to Konoha and her services," with that said the Hokage leaned back into his chair as all of the five people's eyes had widened as they remembered the older man. Kimihiro and his parents rarely visited Konoha, but just the year before the destruction of their village the three had visited to congratulate Kushina on passing her academy exam.

Once all five had nodded their agreement to bear witness to the oath and subsequent induction to Konoha's ranks, the third pulled out the oath seals, as he did so Kimihiro had knelt. The Sandaime placed both seal stones in front of the red head and the grey eyed man placed both hands on the seals as he stated, "I, Kimihiro Uzumaki, hereby renew my Clans vow of loyalty and allegiance to Konohagakure as well as to the two founding clans of it!" With a flash of light the oath stones accepted the renewal of the Uzumaki clans vow and Kimihiro stood from his kneeling position before he bowed to the Sandaime Hokage as he said, "I'll retake the Clan seat formally from it's guardian holder at the next council meeting."

Hiruzen nodded as he said, "very well, I'll have the current holder of the seat attend the meeting since he usually avoids them religiously by taking missions or by being so late that it's already over by the time he arrives." At the curious glances shot at him by Asuma and Kimihiro the third explained, "he was repeatedly denied custody of his sensei's only child by almost the entire council on the basis that he was too young to take care of a newborn." He snorted before he muttered almost to himself, "too young to take care of a child but old enough to die," with a sardonic twist to his lips the Hokage stated, "of course he used their excuse against them when they tried to demand that he have a child. He later flat out told them that unless he was also granted custody of his sensei's son then he certainly wasn't taking a lover just to have a child," he looked amused as he had spoken.

"He's kept that stance ever since, whenever the clan council pressures him to have an heir to his clan he asks if they're ready to let him have custody of his sensei's son, they always say no so he merely says ' _then that's my answer to your request.'_ I always find those meetings very amusing," Tsume said lazily as she leaned against the wall to the left of the door. She had glanced at Kimihiro and noticed that the man had a look on his face that suggested that he knew exactly just who the two were talking about.

Shikaku sighed as he leaned against the desk as he said, "and now he has a lover so they can't exactly try to slip a broodmare into his bed, not that their attempts ever worked anyway. If they had truly wanted him to continue his line then they would have been better off leaving him alone until he was ready or to have given him custody of his sensei's child. Then again," the Nara said thoughtfully as he tapped his right wrist lightly, "I bet that he would do anything so long as it was his lover doing the asking and his lover does adore kids… Who knows maybe one day his lover will ask for a child and he'll grant the request, then we'll have a miniature person who is a mixture of those two personality…" At that Shikaku grinned as he said cheerfully, "the resulting child would probably act a bit like Naruto!"

Everyone except the Nara, Kimihiro and the Kage groaned at that, the blond could be an absolute terror when he wanted to be and especially when he wanted revenge for a perceived insult to one of his precious people. Not to mention that he was extremely sneaky and knew Konoha like the back of his hand, he also used his position as a 'Deadlast' to his advantage, some of them highly suspected that Naruto had failed the academy test on purpose. If only to end up with the two teammates that he did gain, their suspicions had apparently been confirmed by the way the three of them acted together, they had formed a highly cohesive unit after only one week together. The three's teamwork was so good that they had been able to take down several Nuke nins, all over C Rank level which was difficult to do, all on their own without assistance from Kakashi.

Kimihiro had nodded farewell after a moment and left the tower, he headed to an old compound to the east of the village, it was a relatively small compound when compared to the Uchiha and Hyuga compounds. It only had four houses with room for several more, it had three training grounds as well as a dojo, to the rear of the compound was a mausoleum that was large enough for several generations to be buried there. He headed toward the first house on the left of the compound, it was the one that Hashirama and Mito had shared before the Shodai's death, after she had arrived in Konoha but before she had made Genin Kushina had shared the house with their grandmother,. At the very least the house would have a guest room he could crash in for the night before he could start beginning the construction of his own house. However, he doubted that once the construction started that it would take that long for the house he had in mind to be built after all he lived in a village where they were used to rebuilding things that Shinobi broke all the time. He also planned to have a slightly larger house constructed for Camilla, Hinata as well as whichever Hyuga was decided to be her bodyguard along with anyone else she planned to adopt into her clan. Zabuza and Haku were also getting a house built for them in the sprawling area since they were allies of the clan and if their own clans later expanded then they could request for their own clan compounds. The house was standing across from the one that had been build for his Uncle Arashi, Aunt Kimiko and his two cousins, only Tsunade would be using it if she returned to the village, well her and whoever she planned to live with, seeing as her parents and brother were deceased.

The house beside Mito's had belonged to Tobirama, the second Kage never shared his house with anyone even though it was large enough to do so, the silver haired red eyed man had built it to share. When asked with whom he planned to share it with all he did was smile sadly before he would say, "with a ghost," that was always his answer to anyone asking that question. Mito, if asked, would smile enigmatically and not say a word to explain the odd comment of her brother-in-law concerning his living conditions and his house that was large enough for two or more.

Kimihiro had glanced over at the final house, his grey eyes darkened in sadness, it had belonged to Kushina and Minato although the pair had a house in the Namikaze compound they had preferred to use the Uzumaki one over that one. Mainly due to the Namikaze clan being younger than the Uzumaki and thus having a smaller compound combined with how Kushina had wanted to be close to her remaining family that lived in Konoha. Finally he placed his hand on the door and after a brief moment it swung open without a sound as the security seals recognized his chakra signature, he then stepped inside before he closed the door behind him. He then glanced around the entranceway, which was open and airy, if it was daytime then it would no doubt be flooded with light. Camilla, Haku and Zabuza would be staying in the Uchiha compound until their houses could be built in the Uzumaki compound, as he passed the kitchen he smirked to himself as he thought, _'I'll wait until after the council meeting tomorrow to start building the houses.'_ At that top of the stairs he pushed open the door that led to his Uncles room that he had used until he married and moved into the house across the road, he tossed his sleeping roll over the bed and collapsed on the bed exhausted. "If one of those idiots try to insult my nephew or clan tomorrow I swear I'll be giving them a piece of my mind," with that said he dropped down into the arms of Morpheus. As he did the former whirlpool nin thought absently to himself, _'that Baki-san seemed interesting enough…not to mention that he was rather handsome…'_ Ordinarily such thoughts would cause the red head to jolt awake from the shock of where his own thoughts had gone but he was far too tired to do so tonight.

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Meanwhile, as Kimihiro was falling asleep, Baki and Sasuke were walking back to the Uchiha compound and the main house, Baki was telling the raven haired teen about who much he liked his room. Although the desert nin had been a little puzzled over the odd choice of decorations for it he was very much pleased with the colors and design that had been used on it. His room had been decorated with deep grey's with a few splashes of red, along the base of the walls were tigers and lions in play: a lion pouncing on a tiger, a tiger stalking a lion, one pair was just lying down sleeping while curled around each other. Even the lamps were decorated with the two animals and when he asked the teenager as to why the room was decorated like that Sasuke had smirked as he said, "Naruto decorated yours and Temari's rooms while Sakura tackled Kankuro's room. I had handled Gaara and Akasuka's rooms, Kaka-Sensei just kept Iruka-Sensei busy while we did that. Iruka-Sensei kept wanting to give us advice on how to decorate the five rooms, so if you want to know just why those two animals are decorating your room you had best ask Naruto."

Baki hummed at that before he idly said, "I'll do that tomorrow, I'm rather curious as to why he chose tigers, I get the lions since they're my summons but why tigers," it was obvious to Sasuke that Baki was baffled by his cousins choice. It had stunned all three Genins of team seven when they had found out that Sasuke's fathers family tree, on it was two women, sisters and from their dates of birth twins, one of them married Sasuke's grandfather while the other married a man by the name of Yoban Uzumaki. Leading down from the pairs name was the names of their two children, Kimihiro and Kushina Uzumaki, the male child's name was written in green while the girls was sewn in red. From his grandfather and grandmothers name was his fathers which was linked to his mothers name, below them was his and Itachi's names all four names were written in red thread. None of the three Genin could figure out why only Kushina's name along with her mother's were written in red thread, directly below Kushina's name was Naruto's, there was a line leading from her name to an empty space beside it as if waiting to be filled in with a name. The very first time that Naruto saw his name as his mother meant it to be written was on that family tree, when Sakura had translated it she had huffed a laugh since it suited the hyperactive blond.

When Baki had entered the house he found Akasuka in the kitchen cooking, normally the five would share a meal before the last person took their watch but tonight, unknown to the other four, no one would be taking a shift at the gate ever again. Gaara glanced up to nod a small greeting to his sensei and caught sight of a tired but pleased looking teen behind him, since the teen resembled the Sasuke they had known in Suna the sand user knew that the older boy was Sasuke. Baki was amused by how the eyes of his youngest student lit up as he chirped, which was odd since that was not normally a tone of voice that the quiet teen used often, happily, "Okasan, you're home!" He tackled the older teenager with a small smile, Temari and Kankuro both poked their heads into the room at the excited cry of their baby brother. They too darted over to greet the Uchiha, Sasuke had laughed before he fussed over the three of them with a fond smile on his face.

Akasuka leaned into the room from the kitchen, his green eyes softened as he watched the dark haired teen with his children, after a moment of allowing Sasuke to fuss over the three, Akasuka cleared his throat before he said, "children, I'm sure your mother is tired so please stop crowding Sasuke-Kun." When the teen looked up at him the three children pouted adorably at their father and Akasuka merely smiled at the Uchiha as he said, "I'm glad you're home, Sasuke." With that said the Kazekage ducked back into the kitchen to finish dinner, he left his children, Baki and Sasuke staring after him with their eyes wide from shock. The Kazekage was never really a verbally affectionate man, he preferred to use actions over words to tell someone that he cared about them.

Sasuke finally shrugged as he gave up trying to figure out how the red head's mind worked, he then ruffled Gaara's hair as he said, "I'm going to go unpack. Who wants to tell me how their training has been going while I was away?"

At that question all three shot up as they chorused, "me!"

Sasuke laughed and led the other three up the stairs as he listened to them going on about their training, occasionally interjected a comment or question to get them to explain something further. After hearing all about their training and having unpacked the four Genins trailed downstairs with Kankuro leading the way along with Temari, behind them was Sasuke with Gaara at the rear of the group, Gaara had an amused look on his face as he followed them.

The four entered the dining room to find the table set and the two Jounins placing the food onto the table, the two looked up to see Temari lightly ruffle Kankuro's hair. For once the teen wasn't wearing his usual outfit so his hood wasn't there to cover up his dark red hair, Akasuka found it rather amusing that out of all of his children both of the boys had red hair like him. He had never been able to figure out just from whom Temari had inherited her blond hair and blue eyes from since his wife had brown hair and eyes, when she had been born the doctors suspected that she might not be his at all and ran tests to determine if she was his child. They only informed the Kazekage of the tests and his suspicions after the results had come back that she was indeed his child, it had been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was his, the medic nins theorized that latent genes in the Sabaku family were active in Temari but dormant in the males of the line, this was later confirmed by the births of her brothers.

Any lingering doubts anyone might have still had about Akasuka's oldest child paternity were swept away by Temari's attitude and mannerisms as she grew up, since he was busy with his duties as Kazekage he hardly spent much time around her for her to pick them up. So only biology could explain just how she could act and move so much like her father, Kankuro was much the same way, both children had a drive and enthusiasm for their chosen weapons much like Akasuka did. Gaara also acted much like his father but there were times that Akasuka was reminded of his former partner when he looked at his son as Gaara acted innocently or asked a naïve question of someone. However, the second son of the Kazekage was far more serious than 'Sori had ever been, Akasuka rather doubted that anyone in the world could ever make his old partner lose that infamous cool but he rather hoped that some would someday manage it. For both his old friends and his sons sake, since Gaara had that same cool, unruffled attitude that made his old partner so infamous among the enemy, "Mother," he heard Gaara whine as he pouted up at Sasuke when he had ruffled the younger boys hair. Sasuke then dished up a plate for the twelve year old and Akasuka amended his previous thought to be, _'unruffled unless he's being fussed over by his '_ _ **Mother'**_ _that is.'_

Once everyone had been seated and served, Akasuka spoke a traditional Suna blessing before they began to eat, Akasuka smirked as his eldest son avidly and pointedly avoided anything with spinach in it. Sasuke's eyes had lit up when he spotted the rice balls as well as the two dishes with the tomatoes as part of the ingredients. Temari wasn't surprised to see fried squid next to Baki's plate since the Jounin loved that stuff while her and her father loathed it. "Thanks Dad," she chirped when she found the small bowl of roasted chestnuts beside her bowl of Kenchin-jiru, near Kankuro was several beef dishes since the one dish that the puppet user loved was hamburger steak. As she thanked her father, Temari had noticed that by Gaara's bowl was a plate of Sunagimo and slices of broiled beef tongue with salt, she scrunched her nose at the sight of the plate but kept silent about her disgust of the dish.

The Kazekage ate neatly with chopsticks and when Sasuke had hummed with delight at the taste of the two dishes with tomatoes in them he had asked softly, "so do you like them?" When Sasuke had looked up at him in confusion Akasuka clarified his question with a soft smile as he gestured at the Uchiha's plate, "the dishes, do you like them?"

Sasuke nodded as a pleased smile crossed his lips as he said just as softly as the Kazekage, "yes, they're delicious," his dark eyes then twinkled playfully as he slyly stated firmly, "you won't be leaving Konoha until you've taught me how to make these two dishes."

Akasuka had laughed at the playful order while the other four were amused at the way that the pair were teasing each other, Baki was just happy that his Kage was feeling playful again. The three children were merely delighted tat their father was comfortable enough around their _mother_ to drop his mask to tease him, after a smug look crossed the older mans face he had retorted lightly, "and how are you planning to explain my absence from my village to my people when I don't return after the Chuunin exams?"

Sasuke looked into playful mint green eyes as he chirped back with a devious smile as he leaned forward and plucked a rice ball off of Akasuka's plate, "very easily, my dear 'Suka-Kun. I'll simply tell them that I wanted you to teach me something and until you do you're not going to be leaving my sight nor my village." At that declaration Baki and all of the kids held back their snickers while Akasuka pouted, with how his villagers seemed to adore the teen all his villagers would do at that particular bit of information would be to smile indulgently before telling Akasuka to teach Sasuke what he wanted to learn if he wanted to come home so badly.

An hour after Sasuke had arrived home the Suna siblings all went to bed, Sasuke had, out of habit from his time in Suna, tucked the three of them into bed and wished them a good night along with sweet dreams. As he tucked Gaara in he heard someone come up to the open door and after a moment Akasuka had said quietly, "he is fast asleep, Sasuke-San, you should head to bed yourself. After all, according to Baki, you have several things to do early in the morning," the black haired teen raised an eyebrow at the way Akasuka had said his name. The Kazekage had hesitated slightly before he added that particular honorific to his name but the Uchiha rose from Gaara's bedside and walked out of the room, as he walked past the older man he made no effort to not brush against him.

As he did so the thirteen year old purred in a dangerously soft tone as his black eyes flashed up at the red head, "you don't have to be so formal with me, 'Suka-Kun," while the older male was somewhat stunned at his tone along with his words Sasuke walked into his room. He then changed into his sleeping clothes, once he learned that Naruto could make seals he asked the blond to put seals on his house so his fan girls couldn't see through the windows. After the seals had been placed Sasuke had relaxed his guard slightly, only just enough to dress for bed so he wasn't covered neck to wrist to ankle anymore, now he just wore a pair of pants. Under his pillow was a Kunai as well as a sealed sword, as he was turning down the covers to his bed he had heard a soft knock at his bathroom door. At first his brow furrowed in confusion before he remembered that he had put Akasuka in the room that shared his bathroom and he sighed softly before he called out over his shoulder, "come in, 'Suka-Kun."

A moment later the red haired man came through the door but the man hovered nervously near it and when he spotted how Sasuke was dressed for bed he had flushed lightly which caused Sasuke's eyebrows to shoot up in surprise. After all, he had seen people buying far more scandalous sleeping attire while he was in Suna, after several moments of the Kazekage blushing and looking everywhere but at Sasuke, Akasuka said, "I just wanted to thank you for what you've done for me and my family." He had been looking down as he had spoken so he didn't see Sasuke stare at him in shock at his words especially at what came out of the Kazekage's mouth next. "You didn't have to save my son's sanity, not did you have to take all of my children under your wing and treat them as your own," Akasuka worried his lower lip before he added in an even softer tone, "and you certainly didn't have to try to forgive my behavior toward my children before you knocked me back to my senses."

Sasuke chuckled lightly before he said with a smile at the older man, "you're welcome but Gaara, Temari and Kankuro are a joy. Sure, they aren't my children by blood but if they wanted that to change that could easily be rectified," he added in a joking tone, unaware of the surprise that Naruto would be springing on him the next day. He then walked over and stared up into mint green eyes as he stated in a soft tone, "as for my forgiving you… How can I not forgive you despite the fact that your marriage was arranged you thought that your wife at least respected you, for her to do that to your unborn son…" Sasuke shook his head, causing his currently shoulder length hair to sway slowly, "it's no wonder that you disconnected yourself emotionally from everyone, it's better for the people to respect their Kage and fear the Kage's guards instead of fearing their Kage."

Akasuka smiled with wry amusement as he stared down at the teen before he said while leaning against the doorjamb, "you have a good couple of points, I'll give you that. As long you promise to kick my ass about it if I forget or slip up, you have a deal, Sasu'-Kun," he then held out his right hand as he offered his deal to the teen.

Sasuke blinked at the odd shortening of his name before he took the older man's right hand in his own and shook it as he commented, "very well, deal accepted, 'Suka-Kun." Then to the surprise of the red haired Jounin, the small teen raised up on his tiptoes to press a kiss to his left cheek as he whispered, "good night and sweet dreams, dear Leopard."

Before Sasuke could turn away the older man had snagged him by the waist and pressed him backward so his back rested against Akasuka's chest and stomach as he placed a kiss atop the teens hair. He then murmured in a soft tone as he nuzzled the black locks, "sweet dreams, my little hawk."

As the teen stood stunned over the bout of affection and the new nickname Akasuka had let go of Sasuke before he left the teens room via the shared bathroom. When the door to the older man's room closed firmly the sound jolted Sasuke out of his daze and he muttered to himself as he climbed into bed, "I really need to pin him down and interrogate him about this odd behavior of his…" As he nestled under the covers Sasuke had absently snagged the plushy leopard from it's place beside his pillow and snuggled with it as he closed his eyes to fade into sleep.

Only an hour later, Sasuke sat up in bed as his memories played out in a nightmare, he didn't dream of his missions or the people he killed while on them to protect those he was escorting, instead he dreamed of the night that Itachi killed their clan. Two minutes after the memories had jolted him awake, Sasuke realized that he was clutching at a pair of pale muscled shoulders and had Akasuka's voice murmuring nonsense reassurances in his ear as he rocked the teen. As the Kazekage comforted the teen he rubbed slow circles on the teens bare back, as he felt the teen slowly calming down from the obviously distressing dream, Akasuka had asked gently, "do you want to talk about it?" He then smiled sardonically, though from where Sasuke's head was tucked under his chin the teen couldn't see it, before he said, "I've been told that it helps by a very wise young person who I am rather beginning to adore beyond all reason."

Sasuke huffed a soft laugh since he had been the one to tell Akasuka that after the Kazekage had resisted telling him about what his deceased wife had done to Gaara before the twelve year old had been born. So he considered it rather ironic that Akasuka would parrot his own words to get him to talk about his dream, he nuzzled into the older mans neck before he took a breath to steady his nerves. His nightmare spilled out from Sasuke like a faucet with a broken valve, the older man grew more and more angry as the words spilled from the teen. Akasuka growled fiercely as he muttered threats to Itachi under his breath, Sasuke was at first startled by the viciousness of the threats before he said, "I'm now not too sure if whether what I saw that night was the truth or not. My brother was always very protective of me and if going after him while hating him would be safer than me knowing who the actual killer was… Then my Niisan would do it in a heartbeat and the Sharingan does all it's wielders to place extremely complicated genjutsus around their targets, I wasn't that skilled with my Sharingan then so I wouldn't have even noticed if he placed a genjutsu on me or not."

As Sasuke had spoken Akasuka had carded his long fingers though the jet black hair locks that fell to Sasuke's shoulders, after Sasuke had finished explaining the older man pursed his lips together before he said, "fine. I promise that I won't hurt immediately if I ever see him but if he tries to hurt you while I'm around then I'll kick his ass from one side of the elemental countries to the other and he had better have a good excuse ready for hurting you back then!"

During Sasuke's rendition of his nightmare the pair had laid down on the bed with Akasuka laying on his back while Sasuke was lying along the fourth Kazekage's left side with his head over the elder man's heart. Once he had heard the growling threats/promises to his brother the dark haired teen allowed the steady beat to lull him to sleep, as the Uchiha drowsed in the area between sleep and alertness, Akasuka had continued to card his fingers through the teen hair. The Yondaime Kazekage kept up the motion absently even once the teen had begun to snore lightly, which sounded more like a purr instead of a true snoring, and once he was certain that Sasuke was sound asleep he muttered to himself, "what in the world am I going to do with you, my little hawk?" He snorted lightly as he absently uttered to the moon, "hey, 'Sori, what would think of me if you heard about how I feel about this boy? Would you kill me or understand and sympathize with me," with that thoughtful but odd question he fell into silence before he had fallen into a slightly troubled sleep.

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The next morning, Sasuke woke up encased in Akasuka's arms, he carefully pushed himself up as he ignored the odd sensations of butterflies in his stomach that had appeared when he realized just where he had slept during the night. He was surprised when, as soon as Sasuke wasn't in his arms anymore, Akasuka had grumbled unhappily before he managed to snag one of Sasuke's pillows to replace the loss of the teen in his arms. The Kazekage caused the teen to blush when he had murmured a happy sound as he nuzzled the pillow absently while the Uchiha watched, after a few moments of watching the sleeping Kage, Sasuke had stalked over to his closet and debated over what to wear for the day.

After several long moments of looking the teen finally chose an outfit before he went into the bathroom and locked the door softly behind him, the teen then took off his clothes before he took a quick shower and got dressed in the clothes he chose to wear, he left the bathroom. He exited it out of Akasuka's room before he ventured into the hall, after he had tucked Temari into bed he had check her closet to see if she'd brought adequate clothing with her, unfortunately she had brought along clothes more suited to Suna than to Konoha when it was fall. If the exams took longer than usual and they had to stay until winter then the three Genins would need new clothing more suited to a colder climate, Konoha did after all get snow in the autumn on occasion.

Sasuke decided that the entire Sabaku family was going to go clothes shopping with him as soon as they all ate breakfast, Baki was excused from the trip since he was sensible enough to bring the proper clothes with him. He headed downstairs to make breakfast leaving Akasuka to sleep in if he wanted to do so, shortly after the bacon was ready Kankuro shuffled into the kitchen as he yawned sleepily, absently he kissed the younger boy on the cheek as he murmured, "good morning, Mother." A few minutes later Temari did the same as her brother before she had downed an entire cup of coffee, black without sugar, she had her hair down out of her customary hairstyle and was wearing a tank top with shorts. Thankfully it should be a warm enough day but her clothes only reinforced Sasuke's decision and determination that the four would be going with him to buy new clothes more suited to Konoha's ever changing climate.

Kankuro was dressed more sensibly than his sister but that could simply be a matter of taste, after all, this was a boy who wore clothing from his head all the way down to his ankles. Of course that habit was semi-practical in the desert since you never knew when a sand storm might begin but also impractical in the areas such as the more swampy areas of the elemental countries. Gaara then wandered into the kitchen with a sleepy mumble followed by a rather bemused Baki who was watching his youngest student slump down at the table looking as if he'd rather be back in bed instead of up and dressed. Five minutes later, Sasuke and the others were treated to the sight of a very sleepy Kazekage tumble down the stairs, if it weren't for the ingrained reflexes from his training as a ninja then the incognito Kazekage would have been in major pain. The red head was wearing a pair of pants and a shirt that he had gotten as a gift from Sasuke, scrawled across the front of the shirt was a saying written in red: _'This is not something to be tossed aside lightly… **IT SHOULD BE THOWN WITH GREAT FORCE!** ' _Underneath the words was a large hammer being held by a small man getting ready to throw it, Akasuka had another shirt that had the saying of, ' _I may be wrapped around their fingers but I still have more of a spine than you do!'_

Lately all that Akasuka's three kids had to do to get their way, barring missions or other such things, was to pout pleadingly at their father, Suna had swiftly realized that most of Akasuka's emotional isolation from his kids was self defense. This was due to the clear fact that the three had him easily wrapped around their little fingers, however, unknown to either Sasuke or Akasuka, all of Suna considered the teen to be one of the few people that their Kage just couldn't say no to no matter what the Uchiha asked of him. This was due to the fact that Sasuke didn't even have to pout or whine to get his way, instead he just had to mention wanting Akasuka to do something and the Kage usually caved without thinking twice. Every once and a while the red head would joke about not doing something just to see the thirteen year old pouting at him, on occasion this backfired on him such as the previous night.

As soon as all of them had eaten Sasuke had stood up as he said in a stern tone, "Baki, you're on dish duty but after that you're free for the rest of the day, the four of you however," he pointed at the three red heads and one blond as he spoke. "All four of you are going shopping with me this morning, I don't have to meet my team until two pm at my family library so we have five hours to get the shopping done." He had ended the order, because it was an order, with his arms crossed over his chest as he stared at him, Temari raised her hand tentatively and Sasuke held back a sigh before he asked, "yes, Temari, you wanted to know something?"

As she lowered her hand the blond fan wielder asked, "why are we going shopping?"

Sasuke stared at her before he said as he ticked off his points on his fingers, "none of you have clothing that are suitable for all of Konoha's winter weather, we also need more food since Naruto comes over here all the time and he eats a lot. Not to mention the fact that Kaka-Sensei, Sakura, Naruto and Iruka-Sensei all have a standing invitation to eat or study with me unless I've informed them of a prior engagement. I ran out of their favorite snacks shortly before our mission to Wave so I need to replenish them before the meeting today," he then rolled his eyes before he pointed at Gaara before he said, "plus I want to introduce him to Lee. Unfortunately I never really know which of the three training grounds that he uses for personal training that he's going to use on any given day so I'll have to search for him or ask around."

"So I suggest that the four of you get ready to leave and Gaara," Sasuke ordered and when he said the younger boys name, the red head looked up at him, once he had the teen attention Sasuke had continued, "leave the sand gourd here, you can carry some of it on you but leave the gourd. I know that you don't need that much sand to use the shield so take only what you need to form that, understood," after a moment Gaara nodded and headed to the front door.

Both Kankuro and Temari stated wryly in chorus, "you don't want us to take our weapons either, do you," although it was a statement and not a question Sasuke had nodded with a smile at the way they said it. The pair sighed softly before they also walked to the door after a glance from Sasuke, Akasuka joined his children who had donned their sandals and the Kage did so as well. When Sasuke joined them he had slipped on his own footwear before he had gestured for them to precede him out of the door, when they had passed by a house Sasuke had glanced at it briefly before he turned away. The house was the one that Zabuza and Haku were using, from Sasuke's memories that house had been empty since before the massacre, it had belonged to his maternal grandparents who had died of natural causes before he was born, his mother and Aunt had been born late into their lives as such the pair were an utter surprise to the pair.

From what Sasuke could feel neither of the former Kiri nationals were home, inwardly he wondered where they were but he figured he could always ask them later about where they had been. He then exited the Clan compound, the civilians watching saw that the last Uchiha had returned to the village and word quickly spread to his fan girls, unfortunately for the girls none of the Sabaku family would allow the girls to come near the teen. Sasuke decided to leave the food shopping for last since he would rather it be sent strait to the house but he wasn't sure if Baki was still there so he lead the other four down to the clothing shops. Since he was under seventeen Sasuke only had access to his trust account, although that account did get monthly deposits from the Clan account. However, he did have a large amount in his personal account due to the fact that he rarely bought anything when he was a kid and he had recently had a large amount deposited into the account from the bounties on the nuke nins that he had taken down while on the caravan escort mission. So he had plenty of money to spend on his ' _kids'_ as well as Akasuka, which meant that none of the four had an excuse to try to get out of him buying them things even if they were frivolous and didn't have a purpose beyond looking good or nice.

Two hours later, all three kids had new clothes that were more suited to Konoha, at first Akasuka had resisted getting clothes but eventually caved under Sasuke's unrelenting stare so he also had several new outfits sealed in a scroll. The villagers hadn't know what to think the first time that Sasuke and Akasuka had argued over clothing that Sasuke had wanted him to get but that Akasuka didn't think he needed at all, all of them had been surprised when the stubborn man had caved to the Uchiha's wish. Sasuke's fan girls had seethed in rage at the way that Sasuke had fussed over Temari, the blond had paused in front of a store window to stare at a kimono in the window, it was deep purple in color with a red obi around it's waist, it's sleeves stopped just an inch or two above the elbows. When he had seen her wistful stare he had dragged her into the store, the fifteen year old had spluttered before she was startled when the younger teen had demanded, "see if that purple kimono in the window fits her. If not then I want to commission one of the same style and color that will," Temari was dragged by two assistants over to the fitting area and helped her into the kimono. Once they had assured themselves that the kimono fit her, Sasuke purchased the purple outfit for her as well as a maroon ankle length coat for Gaara.

All of the four Suna nins weren't wearing their forehead protectors of course, Sasuke was wearing his around his neck out of laziness and since certain shops would only sell to Konoha nins or those in the company of Konoha nins. As they took a break for lunch Sasuke had spotted Haku and Zabuza walking down the street, neither of them wore their mist forehead protectors anymore. Walking beside Zabuza was Ibiki Morino, the Head of the Torture and Interrogation department was smirking in amusement to some thing that the former Devil of the Mist had said about Haku. The feminine looking teen was bouncing ahead of the pair with his pet rabbit on his head, the white animal was sniffing the air as it's ears twitched sporadically as it listened to everything around it.

Sasuke overheard a pair of Konoha nins near them whispering to each other, "do you think that's actually Zabuza Momochi, the Devil of the Bloody Mist? How is he just walking around Konoha unmolested," one hissed at the other.

His friend rolled her eyes as she murmured back, "it's obvious, dummy, either that's not actually Zabuza Momochi or he rather obviously passed the interrogation since Morino-Sama is walking with him."

Sasuke held back a snicker as he continued to listen to the pair arguing with each other, as he did he felt someone slid into the chair beside him and heard a familiar voice utter his favorite saying, "troublesome, come on people, it's plain that Momochi has been given sanctuary by Konoha. Even if anyone hardly ever uses that law it's still completely legal, ya know," Sasuke glanced over in time to see Shikamaru drop his head tiredly onto the bar top.

He patted the obviously tired Nara on the back as he said, "yeah but the last time it was used was over fifty years ago, if doubt that those two idiots over there were even alive back then. The only reason you know is due to the fact that you have perfect recall and I know it since the person who gained the sanctuary became my great-Aunt's sister-in-law, kind of hard not to know about the law when that happens," Sasuke had remarked in a bored tone while the Sabaku family raised an eyebrow in unison at that comment.

When he glanced at the four Suna nins Sasuke had noticed that they were obviously curious about the Nara now sitting beside him, Shikamaru had ordered a simple meal that he could eat as slowly or as fast as he wanted. With a smile he said as he gestured at the boy with the spiky ponytail, "guys, this is Shikamaru Nara, arguably one of the smartest ninja's in Konoha despite his age, not to mention he's also the hair to his clan," he added as an after thought.

"You seem a little too lazy to be the heir of your clan, I thought clan heirs had to be responsible since they would lead their clans one day," Temari remarked with curiosity in her voice. Sasuke shot a look at the Nara with a raised eyebrow as if asking something of the other teen, after a moment Shikamaru waved his hand dismissively as if to state, ' _do whatever you want, I don't care.'_

Sasuke turned to the four Suna nins and began to explain, "the Nara family jutsu's deal with Shadow Manipulation, now can you tell me what happens to shadows at night?" He raised an eyebrow at the four before he continued without letting them answer the obviously rhetorical question, "during dark nights there is no light to make shadows with which would leave a Nara relatively defenseless. That is they would be if they didn't train until it is instinctive for a Nara to land a disabling blow when there is Killing Intent directed toward them. Shikamaru is so tired and lazy is due to the fact that he was up almost all night training to gain that very reflexive action into his muscles."

Temari blinked at that before she turned to stare at the drowsy boy with a new found respect in her eyes, if anyone ever trained in the hottest part of the day in Suna her respect for them might come close to what Shikamaru had just earned. Five minutes later, Sasuke stood up and said, "well the food should be delivered to the house soon so we need to go put it away before we try to find Lee. I'm fairly sure that we can find him fairly quickly as long as we eliminate where he's not," Sasuke stated absently before he tugged on the Nara's spiky ponytail as he said, "be good, Shika-Chan."

The boy rolled his eyes as he ate the rest of his food, he waved goodbye to the group and thought to himself, _'they must be the group that Sasuke had claimed as part of his family. Dad snickered about it for weeks,'_ he shook his head as he remembered how smug his father had been over Sasuke's declaration to the rest of the Clan council over the strange adoption of the three kids. As well as how Sasuke had warned them all that although he wasn't adopting the three kids father, the man would be given all the same rights as his children. As he watched the five walk away from him, the Nara had cocked his head to the side as he suddenly thought, _'that Temari is kind of cute, bossy as hell but cute, I wonder if Mom would like here or hate her…'_ As that odd thought finally registered in his sleepy mind Shikamaru's eyes widened in shock and he swore softly before he muttered to himself, "damn it, I can't have a crush on he, I hardly know her!"

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Baki finished the last of the dishes and placed it on the drying rack, as he did he idly wondered what to do for the day, finally he put on his sandals and left the house he then wandered around the village. He came across a medium sized compound to the eastern side of the village, as he passed it he heard a soft whistle from above him, he glanced up the wall at the soft noise. He spotted Kimihiro sitting on the wall lazily, "good morning, Baki-San, how are you today," the red head was cheerful despite the light sheen of sweat on his forehead and his hair was sticking to his face.

Baki involuntarily smiled up at the older man as he said, "well, good morning to you as well, Uzumaki-san," he tilted his head to the side before he asked curiously, "why are you sweating?"

Kimihiro laughed breathlessly before he said, "I was training with a few clones this morning and you can call me by Kimihiro if you wish to so, my sister used to call me by the name of Kimi-Chan. However, during my travels throughout the countries most of the people I met called me by the name of Hiro Makino," he shrugged with a wry smile before he muttered, "of course, when I was traveling it wasn't exactly safe to use my true clan name…"

Baki blinked at that strange comment in confusion before he realized that during his first few years of traveling Kimihiro would have been hunted if he had used his clan name since it would have been during the wartime and most likely after the destruction of the village hidden in the Whirlpools. Baki then smiled as he said, "that's rather understandable, after all, it was during the wartime and far safer for you to go by a false name. If you truly do not mind me calling you by your name then I'll call you by your given name," the Suna nin conceded almost absently.

Kimihiro laughed lightly before he hopped off of the wall and walked over to the younger man, he looked up at him as he said, "you seem a little bored, Baki-San, perhaps you wouldn't mind sparing with me for a while," he invited with a sly smile. After a moment, the Suna nin nodded his acceptance to the invitation and followed the shorter man into the compound, on the other side of the wall where he'd been walking was an open training ground.

With a grin on his face, not to mention as soon as he was certain that the other man was ready, Kimihiro rushed Baki, who dodged the combo move that the red head unleashed on him, he allowed the punch to go over his shoulder as he caught the elder man's ankle to prevent the kick that had been aimed with it. He was surprised when Kimihiro took advantage of his hold to use inertia to rotate his body enough to slam his other foot into the Suna nins side. Baki grunted in pain but didn't release his hold on the red haired man, it wasn't until Kimihiro had summoned a clone who kicked the thirty-one year olds lower back that Baki's grip slipped enough that Kimihiro wriggled out of the hold.

Those sharp grey eyes studied the decade younger man appraisingly as he murmured softly, "you are good," with a smug pleased grin the red head purred in such a way that had the tanned man flushed, "that's fantastic. I haven't had such a good spar in years!" If anyone had been watching they would have stared in shock and awe at the moves that the pair pulled off during the rather intense spar, although Baki had blushed quite a few times an the innuendo that the older man used along with the occasional grope disguised as a hold. One time the normally serious and quiet man yelped loudly as the grey eyed male groped his ass as he said, "whoops, my hand must have slipped," he had given Baki a look that said, _'don't look at me like that, I'm so innocent that butter wouldn't melt in my mouth.'_

Two hours after they had started, the pair had paused in the spar and Kimihiro said, "huh, it's lunch time," after a silent moment the shorter man invited Baki in for lunch, which was simple sandwiches since as Kimihiro stated with a smile, "Sis was the one who spent the most time with Mother not me." When he noticed the curious glances at the house and the pictures on the walls, Kimihiro softly said, "you can poke around if you want just don't break anything, most of these have sentimental value," he added in explanation. Baki glanced at him but nodded before he walked over to a painting of the Shodai and Nadaime Hokage sitting with a red haired woman, who was laughing at the pair, when he saw which portrait that Baki was looking at Kimihiro said, "that's a portrait of my Grandparents and great-Uncle. It was painted shortly before my Grandmother Mito conceived my Uncle Arashi Senju," he added with a fond smile, he had adored his only paternal uncle who adored teaching him tricks when he visited them all in Whirlpool.

Of course, as he thought that his grey eyes had darkened to nearly black out of grief as he remembered the last time he had seen his Aunt, Uncle and parents alive, as he let out a shuddering breath Baki had turned to look at him. When he saw the devastated look on the red head's face he frowned in worry and asked, "what's wrong, Kimihiro," he had moved over to the other man and knelt down beside the older man's chair.

After a moment, the Head of the Uzumaki clan began to explain the reason behind his sudden bout of grief, "the last time I saw my uncle and his wife as well as my parents alive was when our village was attacked. My Aunt was named Kimiko, she's the reason behind why my mother gave me a name beginning with Kimi, she helped mom birth me while Dad and Uncle Arashi were working out a treaty. Aunt Kimiko had stood in front of one of the escape tunnels to by time for those of us who had fled down it, mostly us kids or pregnant women, so we could escape to safety, I was the last one down the tunnel and I saw her fall. When the bodies were found it was obvious that Uncle Arashi had only lived long enough to avenge my Aunt before he succumbed to his wounds and died, Father and Mother were lying side by side with mere inches between each other due to the sword that impaled both of their chests."

His jaw worked silently as he held back his tears before he stated, "my father died trying to protect my mother, I never told Kushina or anyone else why he had tried so hard to do so." Tears slipped down the grey eyed mans cheeks as he whispered into the crook of Baki's neck, "at the time of their deaths, my mother had been two and a half months pregnant," dark grey eyes stared up briefly into deep black eyes as he said, "my father died trying to protect his last, unborn, child and for that I will never forgive the ones who ordered the attack on our village!"

As his grief, held back for years, finally broke free Baki combed his fingers through the long duel toned hair as Kimihiro sobbed the grief he felt over the loss of his family, his unborn sibling, as well the loss of the only home he had known. After several minutes Kimihiro stopped sobbing and nuzzled at Baki's shoulder where he had buried it to hide the tears that slipped down his face earlier. As the older man tried to calm his breathing, Baki had rubbed his back soothingly as he murmured nonsense wordless murmurings in the red heads ear. As his breathing calmed down Kimihiro raised his head slightly and whispered in Baki ear, "thank you, Baki, I needed that more than I ever thought I would," as a shiver raced down the Suna nin's spine, the forty-one year old pressed a soft kiss to his cheek absently before he moved back. As he turned away to compose himself, Kimihiro had said, "Konoha has a council meeting so I'll have to head to the tower soon but you're welcome to stay and explore or use my clan library. It's not as large as the Uchiha clan library but it does the job well, I still have to begin construction of the three houses I need to do so I'll be back as soon as possible. The meeting was only called so I could retake my clan seat as well as to claim Naruto as my Clans heir and as such declare him untouchable to them all without going through me."

Baki sighed softly as Kimihiro turned away from him, he was certain that the older nin would block the past few moments out of his mind due to shame and ask him to leave. So when the older man had instead invited him to stay the compound, as well as giving him leave to explore he was shocked. However, he had quickly murmured his acceptance of the offer and watched as the red head brushed out the tangles from his hair after he had changed into new clothes that weren't either torn or dirty by training. He was now wearing navy blue trousers with a deep red shirt over that he wore a sea blue Haori with the symbol of his former village on the back of it. The kanji for his clan was also stated on the back above the symbol for the village of the whirlpools it also contained the symbol stating that he was a seal adept of the clan.

Strapped across his back and held in place by seals were a pair of curved blades, after his hair was brushed Kimihiro quickly braided it with long practiced movements. He added a thick large ring to the end of his braid, Baki was confused as to why he did that although he supposed that in a pinch the ring could be used as a blunt weapon. With a wave of farewell the red head vanished in a swirl of water and Baki stood up to continue exploring the house, on the ground floo was the living room, the dining room, kitchen, entryway and a study. Once all four rooms had been completely explored the Suna Jounin headed upstairs, pausing every so often to study a photo more closely, none of them had any clue as to who the person was but it was nice to look at them.

He poked his head in one room and found that it must belong to, and he was assuming this was the master bedroom due to not only the huge bed but the open funerary shrine in the corner displaying a picture each of the first and second Hokages as well as a portraits each of a pair of couples. The younger man from the looks of it, had red hair along with grey eyes, after studying it for a moment Baki found quite a bit of resemblance between the man and Kimihiro. The other man had similar features to the red head so they were likely to be brothers, he had black hair and blue eyes, the dark haired man had his arms wrapped around the waist of a silver haired woman with amethyst eyes. The first man had his left arm draped over the shoulders of a dark haired and eyed woman, all four were smiling at the person who had taken the pictures. The photo of the Shodai Hokage showed him to be smiling at the camera while his dark eyes danced with amusement while his dark haired flowed smoothly down his back. In contrast to rarely happy picture of his brother, the Nadaime Hokage's portrait showed a somber faced man with short sliver hair and red eyes, he hadn't been facing the camera when the picture was taken so it was likely to have been a candid shot and thus a true picture rather than a posed one.

As Baki left the room, he wondered just what or who caused that pained look to have appeared on the Nadaime Hokage's face, the next room looked as if it hadn't been slept in for years and was decorated for a child not an adult. Unknown to Baki the room had first belonged to Yoban then to his daughter Kushina, as soon as she had become a Genin the red haired girl had moved into an apartment with Mito's reluctant blessing. The last room he looked in appeared to have been recently slept in so he knew that it must be the room that Kimihiro was using at the moment. On the dresser was a bag of clothes but unlike the other two room this one didn't appear to be made for anyone in particular since it was bland in both color and style, Baki thus assumed that it must be the guest room.

Once the entire floor had been explored Baki left it and the house, toward the back of the compound was a large stone building, he raised his eyebrow at the sight of it. Out of curiosity he walked over to the explore it, when he opened the door he discovered that the building was the Clan crypt, however, only eight of the nooks were occupied by urns and a total of thirteen had photos in front of them. Two nooks side by side held the first Hokage's remains along with his wife's, the other four held the photos of the two women and men from the funerary shrine in front of the urns. Baki made a mental note to ask Kimihiro about the four peoples identities, the other two occupied nooks held the photo's of a young boy and a young man in front of them respectively. The other five nooks held a photo of Naruto's mother: Kushina, the nook to the right of her photo held the picture of her partner: Sakumo Hatake, to her right was the photo for the Yondaime Hokage. The last two photos were of the Nadaime Hokage and the one beside his held the photo of an Uchiha male with his Sharingan activated, his eyes were the usual red but instead of the comma marks he had a black circle with a red dot in the center where the pupil would normally be. Extending out from the circle were three thick lines one at the top and two coming out from the bottom part of the circle at an angle, those eyes were twinkling in amusement as he stared at whoever had taken the photo.

Baki left the mausoleum and attempted to find the clan library by poking his head into all the buildings, he found two more houses and a dojo before he stumbled upon the library. He blinked at the many rows of books before he said in a rather stunned tone, "well this will keep me occupied for a while…" As he walked further in he had muttered aloud absentmindedly, "I wonder if I can find jutsu's to teach to Kankuro, Gaara and Temari in here…"

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As Baki began his exploration of the compound, Kimihiro raced to the tower and slid to a halt in front of it, as he panted to catch his breath he had glanced over his shoulder to see the cloud of dust that he had left behind him from his sprint. He had dropped in on one of his sister's protégés, he had then stopped by the monument to chat with his sisters name, after he was done he raced to the tower, Inochi had agreed to anchor Kimihiro's mind when he checked on Naruto's seal. Although he trusted his brother-in-laws work, he would prefer to chat with Kurama to get his impression of the Kyuubi's attitude toward his host as well as to ask how the village treated his nephew before he arrived.

Of course, he'd also be checking the Uchiha records since he was certain that his cousin Fukaku would have watched over Naruto and recorded every infraction against the young blond in order to make the life of the one who committed the act a living hell. The red head stalked into the tower, Izumo called out a brief greeting from were he was turning in a mission report and the grey eyed man had waved an absent greeting back, Kimihiro wore a red forehead protector around his neck with the plate resting at the hollow of his throat.

When he reached the council chamber doors the Uzumaki Head took a deep breath to steady his nerves before he schooled his face to not show any of his nervousness before he opened the door to the chamber and strode in seemingly without fear.


	17. Chapter Sixteen: Of Seats, Spars and Bloodlines!

**A/N: Just to let you all know the next update will be a little late since my boss has me working overnight for the next six days. Reviews make me happy even if it's just to say good job, also I have a new poll up on my profile on Fanfiction.Net, you can review in one of the chapters there to place your vote if you want, please vote in it!**

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**Chapter Sixteen:** _Of Seats, Spars and Bloodlines!_

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Before Kimihiro opened the doors to the council chambers, the Clan and civilian councils had gathered, both sets of councils were confused over an additional empty seat among the Clan councils unholy trinity frown in puzzlement since Kakashi refused to attend the meetings for any of the seats he held and even if he chose to the empty seat of the Hatake clan was always present. Kakashi held the Hatake seat by blood and right, he also held the Uzumaki and Namikaze seats in trust until a blood relative of both clans came to claim them. Shikaku, Inochi, Choza and Tsume were the only ones in the room aware as to why their was an empty seat in the Clan seats. After everyone had settled into their seats, the Hokage entered the room with Kakashi along with Iruka, who as usual was acting as the scribe for events as the Sandaime Hokage preferred.

Before anyone could begin to question the Hokage about why he had called the meeting, the doors to the chamber swung open to admit a man with long red hair that had black streaks going through it woven into a tight braid. At the end of the rope of hair was a ring about six inches in diameter made of a silver colored metal with a bluish tone it had a matte finish so it didn't shine normally. He was wearing the standard sandals of a Shinobi and wrapped around his feet, ankles and calves were red wrappings, he wore the same wrappings around his hands and lower arms. His pants were navy blue in color while his shirt was the exact same color as his leg and arm wrappings, over his shirt he wore a stomach guard with straps that crisscrossed his chest in an X shape. Over that he wore an ankle length Haori in charcoal grey with waves lapping at the bottom of it in sea green, as he passed by them everyone noticed that he had the same swirl symbol that was on all the flak jackets and vests of all Konoha Nins. He also had the Kanji for Uzumaki as well as another symbol on the back of the Haori, the second symbol was a pair of circles with a ring of five comma's around each circle and a tiger head in the center of each one. Unknown to the people who saw it, the two circles signified his rank as a Seal Adept of his clan, the comma's proved how highly ranked he was as an Adept, the highest amount of comma's a seal adept could have were five while a seal Master could have up to ten comma's.

The animal faces stood for the summons of the seal Adept or Master, if all the animal faces were the same then they had only one summon, Kushina's three circles had held a cheetah, a snake and a toad since no one except Sakumo was aware that she had a seal that allowed her to summon the wolves. Most people had assumed that Sakumo had summoned the wolves whenever she summoned them and he was nearby, which was useful to the pair since many people wondered how in the world did he summon them so fast. Kimihiro came to a halt in front of the Hokage and bowed to him as he said, "Hokage-Sama, a pleasure to see you," he then stood up straight and nodded a greeting to the two men standing on either side of the Sandaime as he took a single step backwards.

"Ah, Kimihiro, I'm glad you could make it on such short notice," Hiruzen replied quietly as he puffed on his pipe and his former teammates looked at him oddly while the Clan Heads not in the know all furrowed their brows since the name rang a bell with them. The third then turned to the gathered group as he said, "I called this meeting so there would be sufficient witnesses to the next event." He then nodded to Kakashi as he said, "Kakashi, Kimihiro, you both know what to do next."

"Of course Hokage-Sama," the pair chorused as they glanced at each other before they stood only three feet apart from what another.

Kakashi held out his left hand and Kimihiro took it with his own left hand before the red head held out his right hand which Kakashi had taken with his right hand. As their hands were clasped Kakashi had stated formally, "I, Kakashi Hatake of the Hatake Clan do hereby relinquish the Uzumaki Clan Council seat to it's rightful owner, by blood and by right."

Kimihiro then stated before anyone could try to object, "I, Kimihiro Uzumaki, Head of the Uzumaki clan do hereby accept the council seat of my clan held in trust by the Hatake Clan and thank them for keeping it safe through the years." At that the entire clan council had gaped at the pair in shock since a brief flash of light had appeared around their hands, at least the ones unaware that Kakashi held two seats in trust for safekeeping until their rightful owners could retrieve them from him. Once the flash of light had disappeared Kakashi had returned to his previous spot while Kimihiro had sat down in the seat between the empty Uchiha seat and the empty Senju seat, only Tsunade Senju, as far as the council knew anyway, could sit in that seat since she was the last person of Senju blood alive.

One of the civilian council asked in a belligerent tone, unaware of the high standing of the Uzumaki Clan, "and who the hell are you? How can you just waltz in here as if you own the village!" The Clan council stared at the civilian and wondered just how stupid were these people, they then eyed the red headed Uzumaki as they inwardly wondered which Uzumaki that held the seat previously he would take after in response to that tone of voice.

Mito was always a calm woman but if spoken to belligerently or with disdain she would allow her temper free reign to vent upon the unfortunate person to have done so to her. Arashi on the other hand when he briefly filled the position while his mother was visiting her clan in Whirlpool, had a temper that became an icy fire when provoked, he had only once spoken of his mother's temper. _**"Mom is like black powder in a way, on one hand black powder makes for very pretty fireworks in the sky but on the other hand it can be used to blow stuff up to high heaven."**_ Arashi's niece on the other hand, was a woman that was well known for her flash fire temper and fiery tongue, so it had been a surprise at how her attitude would do a complete one eighty if spoken to like her baby brother had just been spoken to. Her voice would lower while her eyes would flash in rage, many Shinobi often said, _"you can relax when she's loud that's how she normally is. it's when she's quiet that you had better think about running away unless that'll just enrage her more,"_ the only two people who could calm her down from her cold rages had been her partner and her boyfriend.

The grey eyes had darkened as he leaned back lazily before he said in a soft and dangerous tone, "who am I? I am Kimihiro Yao Uzumaki, younger brother to Kushina Fubuki Uzumaki, son of Yoban Uzumaki, grandson of Hashirama and Mito Senju nee Uzumaki! That is who I am! Tell me, can you trace your line back to before the founding of Konoha," he asked sardonically and when the man couldn't answer him the red head had snorted derisively as he said, "I thought not." His grey eyes locked onto the eyes of every council member briefly before he stated, "I may not own this village but I am a direct descendant of the founding clans and the first Hokage, as such I do expect to be respected. Anger me only if you dare," he added darkly with a slightly sinister smile that promised grave danger to anyone who tested his temper more than once.

Hiruzen cleared his throat before he shot an irritated glare at the civilian man who asked Kimihiro that ridiculous question before he said, "as I was going to say before I was so rudely interrupted," the civilian gulped and looked a bit sheepish at that. "Kimihiro Uzumaki has been granted special Jounin status due to his acknowledge talent as a Seal Adept of the Uzumaki Clan," he continued as his glanced at the gaping clan heads, the ones who weren't in the know as to what the symbols on the back of Kimihiro's Haori meant. "Is there anything else that you need to discuss this council meeting or can it wait until the next scheduled meeting," Hiruzen raised a single eyebrow at the forty-one year old as he queried that of him.

He waved his hand as he said nonchalantly, "I just need to declare my heir so they will give my heir the recognition as required by Konoha law, as even Cousin Tsunade is given respect as to her due for being the Granddaughter of Hashirama Senju. As does young Konohamaru but for years no one except the sister clan of the Uzumaki has given my sisters only son the accord that he is due as the Great-grandson of the Shodai Hokage and the great-great Nephew of the Nadaime Hokage." At that some of the council members blanched, mostly the civilians since the clans were aware of the fact and although they didn't treat him with disdain they didn't acknowledge his status as the last Uzumaki within Konoha's walls either.

The Hokage gave Kimihiro a smile before he gestured to Iruka and said, "Umino-san, would you record the name of the Uzumaki Clan heir for the record please." Iruka nodded and pulled out Kimihiro's file and got ready to writes the name of his clan heir as soon as the grey eyed man announced it.

Kimihiro smirked faintly and stated with a highly formal tone to his voice, "I, Kimihiro Uzumaki, Head of the Uzumaki Clan do hereby declare the only child of my sister, Naruto Hoseki Uzumaki, to be the rightful and chosen heir of my clan. Let any who have grievances with my nephew come to me," his grey eyes shot glares at the civilian council members as some though they could extort the clan over the 'demon brat.' Those with such ideas were quickly disabused by how Kimihiro had purred out dangerously, "and if they do they had better have concrete proof of these grievances beyond hearsay because if they don't I will declare them persona non grata with my clan and any businesses we own." Grey eyes gleamed smugly before he stated, "so I highly suggest that anyone who might make unfounded accusations research all of the shops and companies that are owned by my family or that we have a majority share in," with that he nodded goodbye to the entire room and left the tower and head back to the clan compound.

When he got back to the house and felt out to see if Baki was still in the compound, his grey eyes snapped open when he felt Baki inside of the Clan Library. With a smirk he headed over to see what the younger man was up to, after five minutes of searching he found the Suna nin studying a scroll on wind jutsus that had been in the clan for generations upon generations. He leaned over and said, "that's a good one to use actually," he held back a laugh when Baki had yelped as he jumped before he whirled around in his seat and glared at Kimihiro with an annoyed look in his visible eye.

"Don't sneak up on me like that, Kimihiro," the other man growled, sounding a lot like one of his summons when it was summoned in the middle of a nap. Grey eyes sparkled with amusement as Baki continued to grumble under his breath about sneaky Leaf Nins, although unknown to Baki the older man could hear every word he muttered due to the enhanced senses he inherited from an ancestor. "You almost gave me a freaking heart attack, for Kami's sake," the sand nin stated with a mild glare at the former Whirlpool nin.

Finally Kimihiro let out a chuckle as he said with an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry for startling you, but I thought you had either heard or sensed me coming up behind you." As he had spoken he had moved so he stood on the other side of the table from Baki, he had glanced down at the scrolls on the table as he asked, "is there a particular jutsu that you're looking for?"

Baki relaxed as the older man moved out from behind him, he might like Kimihiro but training made him be wary of someone behind him that he'd never worked as a partner with before until he had done so Baki's instincts would scream at him. Although the Suna nin was clueless as to why his instincts didn't inform him that Kimihiro was standing behind him before the ex-whirlpool nin had spoken. The Suna nin accepted the apology with a silent nod and when he heard the question he had startled. "I'm just looking for new techniques to teach my Genins before the exams begin," Baki finally answered softly before he said with a wry tone, "Kankuro works with puppets, Gaara prefers sand and earth style jutsus while Temari take a great deal of glee in using wind jutsus."

"Too bad my Bother-in-Law is deceased, he adored using wind jutsu's," Kimihiro said softly, not seeing the look Baki had shot him at that comment, the red head had moved over to a shelf as he said, "you know, I think he left a few scrolls here…" He started searching the shelf before he said in a smug tone, "aha, I knew it!" He pulled down four scrolls before he walked back over to the table and set down the scrolls as he said, "you should look through these to see if they have some wind jutsu's she doesn't know." As Baki began to pull the four scrolls to over to himself Kimihiro turned away and called down over his shoulder, "I've got to go place the foundations of the houses so I'll see you later. You're welcome to come watch," the red head added as he walked out of the door to go outside.

Baki raised an eyebrow at that rather odd offer since he highly doubted that all three of the foundations and frames could be done in the hours left until dusk even with shadow clones helping. Curious as to how the older man planned to accomplish such a feat Baki followed the older man out the door and into the compound, his black eyes widened in shock when Kimihiro's hands flew through the hand seals to an earth jutsu. He watched in a daze made of the combined awe and shock as the ground hardened to stone in front of Kimihiro, after approximately two thousand five hundred square feet had hardened into stone the red head ceased the jutsu. However, what Kimihiro did next caused the thirty-one year old to yelp as he was startled, the red head had formed a one handed seal and gestured at the firm foundation with the other, as he watched several trees about four to six inches in thickness grew into the holes of the foundation. Branches grew from the trees and intertwined with their neighbors branches until the bare trees formed the frame of a house with three stories to it. The building had a flat roof instead of a gabled one, probably to help with the roof trails otherwise known to the civilians as the Shinobi routes, the branches formed more of a spiders web instead of straight lines which the Shinobi surmised was to make the roof stronger.

Several branches had also formed window frames, most of which were large enough to fit a very tall person through with ease so someone used to entering or exiting via a window would have no trouble in doing so. The rapid growth of the trees as well as the odd structure they had taken had caught the attention of many of Konoha's Shinobi as well as quite a few of civilians nearby the compound, all of them came over and the Shinobi stared in shock as Kimihiro first laid another foundation before he grew another frame. The second house was larger than the first, it was obvious that the man somehow held the Mukoton Bloodline limit and those who were aware of just who his family was realized that Kimihiro had been the only grandchild alive who inherited Hashirama's Bloodline limit.

Once the third houses frame had been raised, the red haired man stretched his back, shoulders and arms as he rose from his kneeling position on the ground, despite his age he moved very easily. Many who watched him couldn't believe that the Mukoton user was over forty years old since he moved more like how he was half that, Baki tilted his head to the side as he commented, "I'm guessing that you're done for the day then…"

To the Suna nin's, along with everyone else's, surprise the crimson and black haired man had shaken his head in response to Baki's question before he had said, "no, I'm just taking a break since my nephew and baby cousin along with his teammate are on the way." Within moment of him saying that Team Seven hopped over the western wall of the compound and strolled over to the pair of men, the three Genins had glanced over at the three frames but didn't seem all that surprised at all. All of the civilians gaped in shock when Kimihiro had ruffled the 'demon brats' hair as he said softly, "hello there Nephew mine, how was your day today," the blond glared up at his uncle for the hair ruffle.

"The day went fine, Uncle Kimi," Naruto finally replied, Baki raised an eyebrow at the abbreviation that Naruto had used of his Uncles full name.

At that his teammates snorted in unison and stated in chorus, "if today was merely fine then I'm not sure I want to see what you call either fantastic or horrible!"

As Naruto pouted at them his Uncle raised an eyebrow at them and as his hands flew through yet another jutsu as he asked, "oh, and just why do you two say that?"

Sasuke smirked as he said, "Naruto found two old scrolls, well actually his summons found them and brought them to him, last night. One scroll is notes on a language seal as well as the diagram of the seal while the second scroll contains step by step instructions to a blood adoption ritual." Sasuke then glanced around at the gaping spectators as he said blandly, "I guess nobody realized that you might actually have activated your grandfathers Bloodline limit."

As Sasuke had explained his and Sakura's disbelief over Naruto's choice of words, Kimihiro's jutsu caused more limbs to sprout along certain branches, the new limbs quickly spread and formed floors. Once the limbs were loosely twined together they flattened and became so tightly meshed that they were one solid platform. The same had happened for the outside walls and roof but instead of completing the house with the jutsus the grey eyed man stepped back as he ended the jutsu. He then glanced over at Sasuke as he said with a smile, "yeah, I would describe my day more along the lines of great not fine and you can call me 'Cousin' you know. After all my mother was your father's Aunt," at that statement everyone except Team Seven, goggled at the Uzumaki Clan Head in shock.

"Hnn, I knew that Dad's Aunt married an Uzumaki but I didn't know that she had married your Dad," Sasuke finally stated, unknown to most what he just said was a lie since he was well aware of the fact but he wanted others to be well informed of said facts. After several quiet moments of contemplation Sasuke asked with his head canted to the right, "can I call you Uncle instead of Cousin? From the few pictures that I've seen, your sister was considered their sister by both of my parents."

Kimihiro laughed lightly before he tapped the teen on the nose as he said, "I have absolutely no objections to you calling me, Uncle, Sasuke-Chan. Now show me these scrolls of yours," he ordered lightly and without questioning his right to order them to do something, team seven handed over the two scrolls. Kimihiro glanced down at each one, his eyes flashed as he read each one quickly and after a moment he asked in a puzzled tone, "not that these aren't a great find, especially since Kushina had copied them from somewhere but why are you so excited about them?"

Sasuke tapped the blood adoption scroll as he said, "me and Naruto want to use that on Sakura sine the other scroll is very specific on what is required for it. Normally I would say only one of us would do it but Sakura already asked her parents about how they would feel if she allowed Naruto to adopt her into his clan," Sasuke's gaze dropped to the floor at that statement.

Sakura swallowed thickly before she took over the explanation with forced cheerfulness, "needless to say, they didn't take it well and they disowned me so I'd really rather not have even a tentative blood tie to the Haruno family any longer." To the surprise of the civilians who overheard her explanation every Shinobi growled in rage, many would consider it to be a very high compliment to have such an ancient clan as the Uzumaki to offer to adopt a person of your family into it. Normally, the only way to link oneself to either the Uzumaki or Uchiha clans were to marry into it or to ally themselves with the two clans, the Haruno's offered a grave insult to both clans and their allied families when they chose to disown their daughter over her adoption into the two clans. If Sakura was adopted by the two clans her status would have shot up dramatically and if they hadn't of disowned her so to would her family's status, but they did disown her thus as her own status rose her former parents status would plummet since no Shinobi would deal with people would disown a child over something as minor as this.

"Permission granted to bring Sakura, formerly of the Haruno family into the Uzumaki Clan," Kimihiro barked as he handed over the adoption ritual scroll before he turned to Sasuke and said, "I may not be the Uchiha clan head but as Head of the Uchiha's Sister clan, I give you leave to adopt her as well!"

All three bowed to him and said in unison, "thank you, Uzumaki-san. Request permission to use the Uzumaki clan compound to do the ritual," the three inquired as they straightened up from the bow.

Kimihiro considered it before he nodded and with a sharp gesture he created a circle of trees with a three foot spacing between each of the tree trunks, the tops of the trees twined together to form a roof for the natural gazebo. He then had the ground form an alter with another jutsu as he stated firmly, "permission granted and I will be happy to witness the adoption if you wish for me to do so."

Naruto nodded as he unsealed a pair of wooden bowls with very intricate carvings on it along with a knife made of metal that resembled silver but had a bluish tint to it, Kimihiro recognized the metal from that blue tint as the metal that only his aunt and her brother knew how to make. When he took a closer look at the blade he recognized his Aunts makers mark, her mark was a circle bisected by a line with a triangle that was framed by the circle and bisected by the same line. On either side of the line within the triangle were two small etchings, to the left side of the line was a 69 symbol and on the other side of the line was a three bladed scythe. The 69 actually represented both his aunt Kimiko and his Uncle Arashi since his Aunt Kimiko had been born on June thirty-first of nineteen twenty-one while his Uncle Arashi had been born on September twenty-first of nineteen twenty-six. The scythe represented Kimiko alone since her favored weapon was a scythe that she had made underneath her grandfathers supervision, she later added the 69 to the makers mark already on her scythe, only her grandfather knew just how Kimiko had been able to change the normally blue tinted silver toned metal to blood red in color.

After her death Kimihiro had sealed her scythe into a scroll and sent it to his uncle-in-law, it had been the last time that the hawks had answered the call of anyone who wasn't their summoner. Idly as he watched the three prepare the ritual adoption, Kimihiro thought to himself, _'I wonder if anyone is using her scythe or if it's just lying around collecting dust…'_

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A silver haired man suddenly sneezed three times in quick succession, as he rubbed his nose another man poked his head into the room and asked, "are you okay, Hidan?"

As he stared down at his lap where his scythe was resting so he could polish it Hidan answered the question the question, "yeah, I'm fine, I think someone was just talking or thinking about me. Don't worry so much, Kakuzu," as he had spoke he had begun to polish the flawless metal, when he reached the base of the bottom blade he rubbed idly at the mark there. He always wondered just who had that symbol as their makers mark, it was a triangle within a circle bisected by a line with a three bladed scythe while on the other was a 69, it was plain to him that the 69 was etched after the rest of the mark had been.

Finally he shrugged and went down to polishing the weapon since he rather doubted that it would be used anytime soon due to the fact that Pein ordered them not to draw any attention to themselves while in Kakuzu's former country or indeed not to let anyone realize who Kakuzu was. The money obsessed man had left the room when he realized that Hidan was ignoring him, Hidan didn't know what his lover was doing to keep from being bored nor did he truly want to know since it could range from going through bounty scroll or bingo books to plotting his next collection hunt for said bounties to cash in.

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Everyone watched as chakra channeling ink was poured into the two bowls before the two boys slashed their palms and allowed the blood to flow into the bowls, once a sufficient amount was in the bowls they sealed the wounds. The blood and ink mixed until one bowl was navy blue while the other bowl of ink was a mixture of sea blue and crimson red, Sasuke had dipped a brush into his bowl. He used the brush to draw Kanji that stood for sister, acceptance, love along with loyalty on the left side of Sakura's face. As he did he had stated, "I, Sasuke Arashi Uchiha, brother to Itachi Yoban Uchiha, second born son of Fukaku and Mikoto Uchiha do hereby accept Sakura formerly of the Haruno Family into the Uchiha clan as my blood sister with all the rights that are entitled to her as such."

As he had spoken a soft light had suffused the ink until it was glowing brightly, Sasuke then stepped back and allowed Naruto to take his place in front of Sakura. He traced the same marks onto her face but on the right side of her face instead of the left, however, as he did he stated, "I, Naruto Hoseki Uzumaki- _Namikaze_ , only son of Kushina Uzumaki and _Minato Namikaze_ , Heir to the Uzumaki Clan do hereby adopt Sakura formerly of the Haruno Family into the Uzumaki Clan. I adopt her as my blood sister with all the rights entitled to her as such."

Just as it had done for Sasuke's ink Naruto's began glowing as well, both boys then traced a mark over the middle of her forehead as they stated in unison, "so it was written, so it was said, so let it be done!" The final symbol stood for eternity and with their words all of the ink glowed brightly before it vanished from sight, everyone who had been watching instinctively closed their eyes out of reflex. When they opened their eyes they found that Sakura had gained black and blond streaks through her cherry blossom pink hair and her eyes gained a ring of blue around the pupil. Sakura raised an eyebrow at her boys as she asked, "well, did my appearance change much," the two smirked before they handed her a hand-held mirror, so she could take a good look at herself. She stared into her new eyes with a bemused smile as she muttered under her breath, "who knows, I might just set a new trend with theses colors."

She then turned to Kimihiro and asked with a raised eyebrow, "so Uncle Hiro, just which clan name to I go by? I can't use the Haruno name anymore but I don't want to honor one clan over the other," Baki was slightly interested in the answer since as soon as his students learned that Sasuke could claim them and biologically take their birth mothers place they'd beg the thirteen year old to do it.

Kimihiro hummed lightly as he made the second house like the first one he had partially finished before he said in a thoughtful tone, "normally the person would take the name of the paternal clan. However, in your case you do not wish that one be treated differently than the other so I'd suggest that you use both clan names," with a flick of his wrist he ended the growth of the wood. He turned to look at her and said wryly, "just hyphenate your last name, little niece," his nose scrunched lightly as he muttered, "I hope that ritual took the boys mothers bloods and not Naruto's mother with Sasuke's fathers since that would look awkward on the family trees."

At first everyone was confused by that odd comment before they remembered that Naruto's mother and Sasuke's father were cousins, worst thing was the fact that they weren't even distantly related due to the fact that their mothers were each others twin sister. At least neither Mikoto nor Kushina were related to the other closer than six generations before them. As the onlookers gawked, Kimihiro's patience finally ran out and he growled, "I believe that it's time you all left. So either leave my clan's compound of your own violation or be chased out by my summons, it's your choice," his grey eyes had flashed as the growl escaped his throat. For a single moment he truly reminded the people watching them of his beloved older sister when she was in a towering temper.

All of them chose to leave without the help of the red haired mans summons, as they all fled Kimihiro had finished the partial completion of the third and final house, as he stopped the jutsu he stated, "I'll have the plumbers and electricians come out later tomorrow so I can finish the houses." As he ran his fingers through his bangs he muttered, "thank the gods that I inherited the Mukoton bloodline limit instead of the Sharingan or I'd have to buy materials to do what I just did…"

In a chorus Team Seven stated, "I'm sure that Grandpa Hashirama fully agrees with you, Uncle Kimihiro!"

At that the red head playfully glared at them before he mock snarled, "oh, you three think you're so smart, get over here ya little brats!" With that he gave chase while the three scattered, Baki on the other hand watched in amusement as the four Konoha nin's darted all over the compound and across the buildings with grins on their faces.

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Earlier in the day, Sasuke had finally located Lee in one of the six Uchiha training grounds, when the five had stumbled across him, Lee Had been doing push ups in the middle of the training grounds with a large pack strapped to his back. He was counting as they landed on the wall surrounding the training area the four Suna nins eyebrows all shot up when they realized how many push-ups the spandex wearing teen had done, "one thousand," the boy exclaimed as he flipped up onto his feet. He then started to stretch as he murmured while he eyed the training posts, "now, what shall I work on next ,can't do anything strenuous since Gai-Sensei called for a team meeting later…"

He then heard a soft laugh from the wall and a grin spread across Lee's face at the familiar sound, he leaned over backwards to glance behind him, his flexibility caused the Suna nins to raise their eyebrows in astonishment. Sasuke sitting on the wall with his legs crossed, the thirteen year old had a smile on his face as he said, "Lee, I think you have a far different opinion, on what is strenuous to your body than the rest of Konoha does."

Lee looked up at him with a beaming smile as he said with a thumbs up pose, "that is because they do not realize that true work and perseverance can accomplish many great things if you put all of your will into it!" At that statement all of three of the Sabaku kids goggled while Akasuka bit back a laugh, he recognized the exuberant nature of the boy, it seemed that this Genin had decided to truly emulate his Sensei to the hilt.

Although in some ways Team Seven adopted some of their sensei's habits as well, but from his bowl cut to his orange leg warmers Lee took first place in taking up a sensei's every habit. Sasuke had picked up his sensei's habit of giving rather unbelievable excuses for things, him and Naruto also did very odd things when bored with only the reason of, _'_ _ **it seemed like a good idea at the time,'**_ as an excuse. Such as the time they had added a hallucinogenic herb to a dish and had the entire Suna council consume at least one bite which had made for a very amusing day for Akasuka as the rest of the village.

Sakura tended to pretend being lazy, she had found that if people believed her to be a lazy fan girl they tended to ignore her and the fact that she had a reputation despite being a mere Genin. Naruto, on the other hand, would pretend not to have heard someone speaking to the point of walking away in mid-conversation, unknown to everyone Naruto and Kurama would one day take advantage of this habit so they could converse without anyone being the wiser. After a few moments Lee had noticed the other four and asked with a curious tone to his voice, "who are these people, Sasuke-San?"

Sasuke smiled down at him and waved at the three kids first as he said, "Temari, she's a Genin from Suna, her two younger brothers, Kankuro, he does puppets and Gaara who prefers to use sand jutsus." He then gestured over at the Kazekage as he remarked, "that man over there is their father, Akasuka-Kun," Lee tilted his head to the side and made a gesture that none of the Suna nins recognized but Sasuke merely said, "that's correct," in response to it.

Team Seven had found a handwritten scroll on hand signs and their translations, when he had made the deal with Lee, Sasuke had taught him the language just in case their teams had to work together. The gesture that Lee had used had asked the other dark haired teen if the four were the Suna family that Sasuke had adopted, after the thirteen year old replied to his unspoken question, Lee had nodded in greeting before he said with a bow, "Lee Rock. I'm in training to become a Taijutsu master since I can't perform Genjutsu or Ninjutsu all that well, Gai-Sensei was most kind to take me as his student anyway," Lee added with a worshipful look on his face.

Sasuke jumped off the wall and walked over to the starry eyed boy, after a moment the other four followed him, Lee glanced at Sasuke in puzzlement since the Uchiha had never brought anyone by when he was training just to introduce them to him. So he was certain that Sasuke had an unspoken reason for doing such an unprecedented act. His suspicions were confirmed when Sasuke had turned to Gaara and said, "what I never mentioned when I spoke of Lee before is that he's a speed demon when he removes the weights he wears," he paused at that before he turned to Lee. "That reminds me, I have new method of weight training for you that doesn't actually involve heavier or bulkier weights," he told his old friend with a smirk, Sasuke then pointed at the red head who had retrieved his sand gourd when they dropped off the clothes and packed away the groceries. "Gaara has an automatic defense that everyone in Suna claims is impenetrable, I want to see if they're wrong about that," Sasuke's eyes flashed red briefly as he growled protectively, "I won't have my baby be venerable if I can help it."

At that comment Gaara flushed with pleasure and Akasuka had to beam at the teen to prevent the comment that wanted to escape his throat from exiting, the Kazekage knew that if it was spoken it clue everyone who heard it into just how strong his affection for Sasuke really was. As it was his actions and lack of actions combined with how he treated Sasuke would clue anyone who knew him well as to how much the teen had become a part of his world, Akasuka finally understood a remark Minato Namikaze had made about how it had hurt Kushina to lose Sakumo. Even if her affection and regard for him was half that which he felt for Sasuke the Kazekage could understand her absolute grief and her utter rage at anyone who dared to offer insult to the White Fangs memory or legacy. No one in Suna to this day dared to utter any comment that could be construed as an insult to the deceased Leaf Jounin even years after Minato and Kushina's deaths.

Lee cocked his head to the side as he said with a cheerful voice, "alright Sasuke-San, I will spar with Gaara-San and I will do my very best to get past this shield of his. That is," he turned to the startled twelve year old and said with a thoughtful look on his face, "if Gaara-San doesn't object to sparring with me…"

"I don't mind," the one tailed Jinchuuriki blurted out without thinking his words through, his answer had caused his siblings along with his father's eyes to widen in shock.

"Yosh," Lee exclaimed happily as he pumped a triumphant fist into the air before he swiftly declared, "then let us begin at once!"

Numbly the other three Sabaku's all leapt atop the wall along with Sasuke, the teen was bemused at Lee's reaction to his request. As Lee stretched Gaara had cocked his head to the side and watched with puzzlement in his eyes, before Lee could begin the spar Sasuke had called down to him, "if you aren't fast enough Lee, I suggest that you take off your weights. You're going to have to take them off anyway since I'll need access to your ankles to place the training seals on you," he added at the torn look on Lee's face since he had always waited for his Sensei's permission before he removed his weights before.

To the Sabaku family's surprise Lee shoved down his orange legwarmers to reveal weights wrapped around his claves with efficient movements the Taijutsu specialist un-strapped the weights and placed them beside the wall before he returned his attention back to Gaara. As he studied the younger boy Lee had moved the legwarmers back to their starting position, he placed one hand behind his back in a fist and held out the other in an almost beckoning gesture. After several tense moments Lee moved and struck out at Gaara's left flank, a wall of sand shot up to stop the blow before it tried to latch onto Lee's leg to throw him away.

Lee had back flipped out of the way, he then eyed the swirl of sand around Gaara warily and he was clearly pondering how to go about getting beyond the wall of protective sand. He narrowed his eyes along with his focus as he made several probing attacks to asses how well it reacted to them along with how long it took for it to recognize them as an attack. Lee's attacks got progressively faster and faster until he kicked up the speed by four notches and punched at Gaara's face, instinctively Gaara leaned away from the attack and although Lee's fist didn't touch Gaara, one of the blades of wind wrapped around Lee's fist due to the pure speed of the punch did. Akasuka's eyes widened in shock as a thin line of red appeared on his son's left cheek before a trickle of blood ran down Gaara's cheek from the razor fine cut the demon host stared at the other boy in shock.

He touched the red liquid with shaking fingers and Akasuka hoped that Gaara wouldn't react too badly to his first injury ever acquired, at all, he relaxed when a delighted laugh left Gaara's throat. As Lee stared at the other boy with puzzlement on his face, Gaara said with an odd smile, "you're the first person to ever make me bleed, be very proud of yourself for that."

Lee then had to leap out of the way to avoid a hand of sand swiping at his legs, Gaara had stretched out a hand and with a flick of his wrist sent a wave of sand at Lee. As he did his brow furrowed while he frowned in concentration, Kankuro and Temari stared in shock at that since Gaara had never attempted to keep such strict control over the sands actions before. Lee and Gaara continued in much the same fashion, Lee would attack and sometimes score a blow or at least slip past the sand shield's defenses briefly before they reacted. But Lee was still just a bit too slow to slip completely under it's defenses before it could react to his presence, but Sasuke could tell that Lee would likely focus on training his speed to even greater heights just to be able to say he could and to prove to everyone who said otherwise that hard work could truly accomplish anything.

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Two hours later, Gaara called a halt to their spar, the pair were tied sine although Lee had scored a few hits on Gaara and managed to make him bleed each time, Lee now had more than a few sand induced scrapes and cuts. Sasuke was also fairly certain that Gaara had barely been able to stop his sand from crushing Lee's bones when it had wrapped around the older teens limbs to throw him away from Gaara. As Lee attempted to clean the scrapes caused by the sand Gaara had rolled his eyes before he knelt by the Leaf Nin as he slapped Lee's hands away before he muttered, "let me, you'll just give yourself Sand Rot and end up with horrible scars…"

With that said Gaara held his hands over Lee's wounds and with a frown of concentration, bloody sand slowly made it's way out of the wounds, the red grains coated Gaara's hands. Lee blinked at the sight of the sand, it had taken all of his concentration to not squirm at the feeling of what felt like ants crawling under his skin when Gaara had done whatever it was that he did to remove the sand from the wounds. The red headed sand user wiped his hands with a wet cloth before he cleaned Lee's wounds with a different damp cloth, one scrape was along the Taijutsu users right cheek bone while his forearm wraps had been torn in several spots so Gaara ripped them off so he could wash the scrapes under them.

Akasuka's eyebrows shot up at the gentle but brusque way that his son was treating the wounds that he had inflicted on the Leaf Genin during their spar, his eyebrows rose even higher when the sand shield allowed Lee to trace where one of the cuts that he had caused had been. As he had done that Lee had said wryly, "I'd offer to treat your wounds as well but they've already healed so I cant make that offer…" He frowned as his thoughts turned inward, the whole time he was thinking Lee's thumb had absently traced Gaara's cheek, the pupil-less green eyes stared at Lee with wide and disbelieving eyes at the absent caress. Finally Lee snapped his fingers before he said, "I've got it! From now on until you leave back to your village as well as anyplace you are and we have the time to do so, I'll be your sparring partner!"

Gaara goggled at him for several moment before he stated, "if that's what you wish to do, Lee-San," as he had spoken the red head had rewrapped Lee's hands and forearms with new bandages that were several layers thick to provide better protection to the wounds underneath them at least until they healed.

Lee waited until Gaara had finished with his bandages before he tilted Gaara's face upward so he was staring Lee in the eye as the Taijutsu user stated firmly with a glint to his dark eyes that warned the Sand user that he couldn't be budged from his choice. "It is what I truly wish, Gaara-San, so please don't try to change my mind about it," unknown to the Taijutsu user the other boys sand armor hid the bright flush to his cheeks at the touch. As he continued to stare into Gaara's eyes Lee called out to Sasuke, "what time is it, Sasu-Chan," Akasuka glared down at the teen for the shortening of **his** Uchiha's first name.

"Three thirty PM," Sasuke said idly as he glanced down at his watch, Solo was on his shoulder, the Hawk had informed him that his teammates were in the library waiting for him to show up.

Lee blanched before he absently ruffled Sasuke's hair, clapped Kankuro and Temari on the shoulders before he nodded respectively at their father. Before he darted out of the training area Lee had dropped an absent kiss on the top of Gaara's head as he shouted, "I'll see you all later, if I don't run I'll be late for my team meeting!" Lee had snagged his weights and put them on before he had dashed off, so unless he confessed to taking them off to Gai the older Taijutsu master wouldn't even know that Lee hadn't asked for permission to take them off.

Sasuke snorted before he leapt off of the wall and headed off to his Clan Library as he said over his shoulder at the four still on the wall, "you can do whatever you want to do but I need to go meet up with Sakura and Naruto!" The four called out farewells to the teen as he walked away, Kankuro had shrugged before he had wandered off to play/train with his puppets internal workings. Temari had waved farewell to her other brother and father before she headed off out of the compound into the village proper to do god knows what.

Akasuka and Gaara blinked after the pair before the older red head ruffled his youngest child hair as he said, "how about we head back to the house and we can play ' _find the most interesting or embarrassing picture_ ' game with the focus of the game being your Mother, okay Gaara-Chan?" Gaara nodded as he had nuzzled into his Fathers side without thinking twice about it and Akasuka smiled at the unconsciously made gesture of affection from his son as he ran his fingers through the soft red locks. He had then led his son down the streets to the house as he began to ponder aloud just what Baki had gotten up to all day or rather what he might still be up to since when they had put the groceries away Baki had still been out and about.

As the four Suna nins had split up, Sasuke was nearing the library and once he reached it he opened the door to see his two teammates at a table toward the back, the three had remodeled the library once they began to use it regularly. Now the building was a four story instead of a mere two story, the front desk now held a master scroll that contained a list of every scroll or book within the library. The scroll also held each items current location and thanks to an intricate seal it constantly updated the information, it could track any scroll no matter where in the countries it was at thanks to a tracking seal that was placed on each scroll in the form of decorative scroll work along the sides of the scroll. There were now very few free standing bookcases since every wall was covered floor to ceiling with bookcases, the only places that weren't covered were the areas of the walls where the windows were; a fact that caused both Iruka and Sakura no end of gleeful joy.

"What are you two looking at," Sasuke asked as he had approached the table lazily, the pair then looked up from the two scrolls they had been looking over at his appearance and voice.

"Hey Sasuke," Naruto said as he tapped one of the two scrolls in front of them before he said with a wry tone to his lips, "take a look at what I found last night. Well, actually the snakes found it but they brought them to me so I did technically find them," he ended with a slight smile.

Sasuke gave him an odd look but did as the blond asked and read over the scroll, his eyebrows shot upward as he read about the language seal, finally he said in a contemplative tone, "this could be very useful when we're on missions…"

Sakura nodded in agreement before she said with a glint to her eyes, "yeah, it would come in handy but there is just one problem with that seal. You can have it placed on you by Naruto or by Kimihiro but neither of them can place the seal on me unless we use this," she held up the second scroll as she had spoken.

Sasuke took the scroll from her and read it over before he said in an amazed tone, "this is a blood adoption ritual, I didn't think anything like this even existed! So," he had glanced up at his teammate before he asked her with a questioning tone, "which one of us is going to adopt you?" I know that we talked about legally adopting you into both of our clans to provide safety for you and your family as well as any children you may one day have."

To his and Naruto's surprise, Sakura's eyes had darkened in sadness before she said in a choked tone, "I spoke with my parents this morning about possibly being adopted into the Uzumaki Clan as a safety measure. They didn't even bother to realize that I hadn't been adopted yet," tears welled up in her green eyes as she remembered the looks on her parents faces upon finding out that she could be Naruto's sister. She took a shaky breath before she continued, "Father told me to no longer consider myself a Haruno because as far as he was concerned his daughter was dead and Mother didn't disagree with him." Her teammates growled in anger at that and their anger deepened even further when the pink haired girl said, "the worst part is that he declared it in public. I told them outside in the hopes that it would stop them from doing anything rash but it didn't!"

If the declaration had been done in private it would have taken three different sets of paperwork to make official but if done in public the declaration is considered binding and irrevocable. As of that moment Sakura was without a family and her tears over it only served to confirm Sasuke's resolve to eradicate any blood tie between the pink haired girl and her former parents. Sakura gave the pair an unsteady smile as she said, "on the other hand, I think me and Ino are back to being friends, since she came to my rescue and told my…the Haruno's to never patron her families shop ever again since she would tell her father that she declared them persona non grata with their clan and she rather doubted that her family or clan would even acknowledge that the Haruno's existed after what they had heard that the family had done to me."

Sasuke snorted as he wrapped the younger girl in a hug as he said, "good for her, if she only got rid of that damn obsession she has about being my wife I could actually come to like her!" At that proclamation his two teammates snickered, Sasuke smirked since he had intended for his remark to cause Sakura to smile and after allowing them to laugh for several moments he said, "lets go show these scrolls to Kimihiro-San. I'm sure he'd be very interested in them not to mention we can ask him if we can use the Uzumaki compound for the adoption ritual as well as to be a witness to it." The three stood up and left the building, they headed to the eastern side of the village, when they arrived they all saw Naruto's uncle using the Mukoton to finish the frame of a house.

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As Team Seven were on their way to see Kimihiro, the Hyuga Clan was getting a visit from Camilla Slytherin, many of the branch family eyed her with curiosity since she was being escorted by Hinata to see the Clan Head. Hiashi glanced up when he heard a soft knock on door to his office, he activated his Byakugan and saw his eldest but rather meek daughter on the other side along with a woman that had long black hair and pale violet eyes. "Come," he finally said as he deactivated his Doujutsu and looked back down at his paperwork as the door opened, his daughter along with her companion, the pair knelt down across from the low table that served as Hiashi's desk. After a long moment of silence from the pair before him, the Hyuga Head asked as he stamped a request, "who are you and why are you here to see me?"

Camilla smiled at the much younger man as she said, "my name is Camilla Slytherin and as for why I'm here, well that's rather simple to explain. As you can tell I'm getting old and as such I need an heir to pass my legacy onto, during our travels together back to Konoha I got to know young Hinata quite well. I'm sure you are able to see where I'm going with this, Hyuga-San, so I won't beat around the bush," she stated before she continued, "I wish to propose an alliance between our clans with Hinata being my heir and thus a link between our clans. Your eldest daughter is not your heir and if your Clan Council has their way she'll be marked as a branch family member, as **my** heir she would be declared untouchable. I'll even allow you to chose her bodyguard, who I insist become a member of my clan before they can swear the oath to protect her," as she had spoken her violet eyes had bored into Hiashi's.

After a moment the Hyuga head glanced at his usually meek daughter to find her staring at him pleadingly and after he let out a sigh he asked, "is this what you truly want, Hinata?"

She nodded sharply as she said, "yes, Father, I wish to be her heir, it will allow you to declare Hanabi to be the official clan heir as for who would be best suited to be my bodyguard… We both know that as far as the clan council is concerned Neji is worthless to the clan except as a breeder for more Hyuga's or as a way to secure an alliance by marriage. That is even though he could challenge Hanabi for her position as clan heir and he's got more training than her so he could conceivably win, the clan council knows this they would rather use him to cement this agreement rather than risk him doing so. I would prefer Neji-Nisan over anyone else to be my guard it would be easy enough to suggest him and even easier to convince them that it is a good idea, they will be so eager to rid the clan of my weakness that they probably won't read through the contract toughly." She then leaned forward and said in a soft voice, "please, please let her take me to be her heir, Daddy…"

Hiashi glanced away from her briefly, Hinata hadn't called him that since her almost kidnapping when she was young and she lost her beloved Uncle, she hadn't been happy that it was either lose her father or lose her uncle. If she was using it now then she really did want to become this woman's heir and she was right, the clan council would jump at the chance to kill two birds with one stone by sending Neji to be her guard, enough so that they wouldn't completely read the contract through. If the two adult worded it right then they wouldn't even notice the safety clauses for the two kids, he doubted that the two had done so until after the adoptions became official and irrevocable. Finally he sighed and nodded in agreement before he said, "very well, lets being the negotiations of terms for the alliance."

After two hours of negotiations, the final contract was finished and approved of by both Clan Heads, it dictated several protective measures that had been non negotiable. Hinata silently read the contract over to herself before she said as she handed it back to her father, "that should work to cause them to believe they have the upper hand. Our clan's council members are arrogant in thinking that they will believe that our clan is older than the Slytherin clan. I can name at least four clans that are all older than ours; the Uzumaki, the Senju and the Nara clans of Konoha as well as the Sabaku clan of Suna. The Slytherin clan has the age of the Uzumaki clan backing them since the contract takes the age of the two clans oldest allies to date the clans age and thus status."

Hiashi beamed at his oldest child and knew that the Hyuga clan would lose a fine head with Hinata's adoption into the Slytherin clan and he would enjoy every moment of his clans shock when they finally realized it. His oldest daughter may have a tender heart where her sister and family were concerned but she was utterly ruthless to those she considered her enemies.


	18. Chapter Seventeen:

**A/N: Mature content in the chapter! By the way I'm curious, do you guys want me to keep doing mature scenes or do you guys want me to stop? By the way if Remus, Shuhei and Isshin do answer the call for help from Naruto they will be girls, just FYI, with that in mind do you still want them to answer the call? Please post your opinion in a review or use the poll in my profile on Fanfiction. Also I have no clue where the hell my muses are coming up with this stuff, seriously it's starting to freak me out and my mother has decided to give me yet another plot bunny that I don't need! Does anyone out there want to read a Numb3rs/Stargate Atlantis AU crossover?  
**

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**Chapter Seventeen:** _Of Angry Cats and Baffling Birds!_

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Five days after she had visited her son in Konoha, Kushina was staring up at the waxing moon, in just two days it would be full and Mooney would be roaming the grounds of Hogwarts along with his pack. As she looked up at the moon, the former ANBU commander felt a familiar set of arms wrap around her waist and as they pulled her back against an equally recognizable chest. She sighed softly as she leaned back into the chest and rested her hands against the forearms wrapped around her waist, "hello, my love."

She felt him nuzzle her hair as he murmured back, "hello to you as well, my dearest Dragon," after a moment of resting his cheek against her hair, "what has you so melancholy, Kushina darling? It's rather unlike you to be this introspective," his grey eyes flashed to a twinkling blue as he quipped softly, "or at least this quiet without a gag!"

She snorted softly in amusement before she said, "just reminiscing Kisuke, just remembering…" He hummed at that and waited silently for what he knew from experience would happen, sure enough Kushina began speaking, "do you remember how Sakumo acted about a month before that mission of his? I do, he acted oddly it was as if he was storing up every possible memory that he could, as if he wouldn't be around us for a very long time. But the next day he acted as if that night never happened at all," her brow furrowed as she slowly clawed the memories up from where they had been stored in her subconscious where they had been stored for years before her death and two centuries after her death.

Kisuke's eyes closed as he thought back to that rather bizarre day and couldn't help but agree with his beloved wife about their dearest silver wolf's behavior that day. It was as if their beloved wolf was trying to store up all of the memories that he could be able to before a long drought. After a short while the former Hokage and current Captain had murmured, "I think you're correct, it was as if he was preparing for a long term mission without us to be with him. But that can't be right, Hiruzen would never send him off without one of us, he always put the two of you on long term missions together after he partnered you together! I can't imagine any reason why he would break that habit all the sudden and send Sakumo on his own," a frustrated scowl appeared on his face as he attempted to figure out the mystery that his wife had uncovered.

Kushina froze for a moment as her mind raced through her memories and several of them jumped out at her with glaring focus as if the memory had been a black and white picture that some one printed in full blown color. A vicious snarl left her mouth before she whirled around to stare her husband in the eye as she said, "you're right, he wouldn't have done that to either me or Sakumo. But I can name three other people who would have in a heartbeat," her eyes flashed red with her Sharingan, which had changed after viewing what her partner had done. She then stated with a rolling growl to her voice, "and as I recall that those same three were very smug about something before Sakumo's mission as well as after he committed suicide!"

Kisuke's eyes, more blue than grey at the moment, narrowed in intense anger as he snarled, "the moronic trinity!" Kushina blinked at the odd name and way that her husband sounded like their son at that moment before she listened as her husband continued by saying, "I should have realized that they were smugger than usual," he huffed angrily. He then stated after he had taken a moment to calm down, "okay, assuming that they did indeed send Sakumo on a long term mission. They would have forbidden any contact with any Konoha Shinobi," he stared at her with a puzzled expression, "then how in the hell did Sakumo commit suicide?"

She took in a deep breath before she stated in a grim tone, "you're not going to like this, Minato, hell I don't like it at all!" She scratched her left eyebrow then raked the fingers of her right hand through her bangs before she said darkly, "Sakumo used a blood clone, only a blood clone would have existed long enough to even commit suicide. Much less remain after the death of itself and passed any autopsy that was preformed but since it was fairly obvious that Sakumo committed suicide his death was ruled as such and no autopsy was preformed on him. I imagine that the trio did know just how he managed that but they were no doubt pleased just the same," she huffed with her arms crossed and her eyes flashed to the red of the Sharingan again.

Kisuke's gaze had grown progressively darker as she had spoken and when she had finished he had hummed before he stated, "you were right. I don't like it but it does make a lot of sense," he quietly conceded with a nod to her before he stated wryly, "and if you're right, finding our wolf will be very difficult."

He was surprised when she had shaken her head at him with a smirk on her face before she purred out, "not really, my dearest Oceanwind," a smug smile crossed her face as she stated, "not when we have two summons who are all willing to look for him all over the place. Not to mention that those two summons can sniff out the man easily enough; the snakes and the cheetahs, I would ask the wolves to look for him as well but he is their contracted summoner thus they would obey any order from him over my own. In other words if they did find him, he could order them not to tell me where he is even if they wanted to they wouldn't tell me a single thing!"

Kisuke's blue-grey eyes danced in amusement before he said with conviction as well as absolute confidence that he was right, "but unlike the wolves, the cheetah's and snakes are loyal to you first then Sakumo along with me second." She nodded in confirmation to his words at that before she began to go through the motions to summon her snakes when he stopped her. "Leave that for later, Kushina, if Sakumo hasn't died in the last fifteen years, I think he can wait for eight hours for us to start looking for him," he stated as he wrapped a hand around her left wrist and caressed her pulse point. "you're tired, my lovely one, you need your rest," with that said he pulled her inside of Hogwarts and up to her rooms inside of Gryffindor tower. Within the confines of their common room Kushina had allowed her chosen successor to deal with minor issues of their house while lending the younger teen the authority of her presence. Everyone knew that the fourth year had been handpicked by Kushina and not Minerva or Albus, so they were even less likely to bully him, or rather attempt to bully him.

The portrait of the Yondaime opened without a single word and allowed the pair inside, Kisuke coaxed her out of her clothes before he urged his young wife under the covers. Once he had also stripped down, the inventor slipped into the large bed with her, he pulled her into an embrace as he did he felt her hair brush over his throat as she murmured, "goodnight, my golden lion…"

As he cradled her in his arms the blond captain had murmured in an equally soft tone, "goodnight, my crimson dragon, let all of your dreams be sweet…" With that said the pair had slipped into slumber, both of them knowing that nothing could attack them without the other reacting.

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Sakumo watched as his partner tussled with his son and Tyr on the grass of the backyard, the grey eyed woman had briefly pinned Kakashi under her and tickled his sides relentlessly but was interrupted by the large wolf tackling her. He heard Minato's familiar chuckle at that and when he glanced over he had seen the younger man's blue eyes were dancing with unsuppressed amusement, a smile spread across his face at the laugh. Sometimes Sakumo thought that Minato was too serious for his own good, the two men were sitting on the porch swing together. Sakumo had his right arm draped along the back and Minato was using it as a cushion of sorts as the pair watched the younger two Shinobi playing all in the name of training.

All the sudden Kushina had called a halt to their play by saying, "okay, Kakashi, your food for your sleepover is ready," at that the silver haired boy perked up and he grinned up at her before he darted inside the house.

"Bye Dad, Kushina-Okasan, Sensei," he called out over his shoulder at them and the three adults grinned in amusement at the excited way that Kakashi was acting to be spending the night with his new pup, already dubbed as 'Bull' by the Genin.

Kushina had strolled up to the two men as she hummed happily and she flashed them a teasing smile as she said, "all alone in this big house for a whole night. Whatever shall we do to spend the evening…" Her grey eyes were dancing in mischievousness as she had spoken, a fact that caused the two men to inwardly groan with an unfortunately familiar feeling of foreboding. They eyed her with cautious curiosity as she said, "but first I believe that we should eat dinner since it is finished," she stated as she walked past them and the two men glanced at each other briefly. They then rose from the swing and followed her into the house then into the kitchen. The red haired woman had three clones cooking dinner while she had played with Kakashi, she had scoffed at the people who only used shadow clones to either practice with or fight with since there were more uses to the technique than that.

Once the three had eaten their fill and the leftovers had been packed away in the fridge the three had settled into their usual spots in the living room, about halfway through dinner it had started to rain so the drops of the rain could be heard falling on the back porch. Minato was sitting on the floor beside the recliner that Sakumo was sitting in, absently the older man ran his fingers through the blond hair beneath his right hand, as he was doing that Kushina entered the room with a tray that held three cups. She handed a cup to each of the men and took her own from the tray before she placed it on the table near the sofa, she then kicked Sakumo's legs apart. She had dropped down once his legs were far enough apart before she sipped her hot drink, with a soft smile the silver haired man had run the fingers of his left hand through her hair briefly and she had leaned her head into the caress.

Sakumo had closed his eyes and drank in the sounds dropping from the pairs mouths, he had finished his drink while the other two were still occasionally sipping on theirs, so he was able to card his fingers through their hair. Small sighs and purrs of pleasure were tumbling out of their pairs mouths as he did so, Kushina eventually turned around so she could nuzzle at his thigh. She then gazed up at him with a predatory smile and purred out, "I think that it's time all good Shinobi turned into bed…"

The blue eyes to his right sparkled in agreement so Sakumo sighed bemusedly before he said as he made to stand up, "if the two of you say so…" As he was speaking Kushina had run through the teleportation jutsu and the three landed in the master bedroom, more specifically they landed on the bed with grunts or groans in Sakumo's case. This was due to the fact that Kushina landed on top of him while Minato had landed beside them, since Kushina had been facing him while kneeling between his thighs that was how she had landed. She smirked down at her partner as she reached up to lightly rake her nails down his bare chest, the two men had sparred shortly before dinner had been started so both of them were only wearing Hakama.

Kushina, for once, was wearing something besides her habitual outfit, she was wearing one of Sakumo's button up dress shirts with a flowing skirt, Minato watched with interest as his girlfriend played with their lover by teasing him with her nails. After several moments of just observing the pair beside him, Minato leaned over and joined the red haired woman in teasing their silver wolf, it wasn't often that the three had a chance to all be in the same room in this manner. Sakumo gasped when he felt Minato run the palm of his left hand up his chest before he coaxed the older man to turn to face him and drew the silver haired man into a kiss, the sight of her lovers kissing caused Kushina to purr in smug satisfaction. She caught Minato's eye and signaled for him to keep the widowed man occupied, for the past few days Sakumo had been withdrawn as well as slightly introspective, as if he had just gotten news he didn't like but had no choice about accepting.

* * *

**Mature Scene Begins Below! Please Read Only if You are old enough to do so!**

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Although they didn't know just what it was that was bothering their lover the couple had decided to distract him from the troubles weighing down his mind as well as reassuring him that they weren't going anywhere without him. As the blond distracted him with kisses, Kushina slowly stripped Sakumo of his pants which he was naked underneath, much to her pleasure and delight. Dark eyes widened in shock when his cock was suddenly sheathed hilt deep in Kushina's throat and mouth, he had released a short scream into Minato's mouth as she swallowed his cock down. Only her Chakra augmented strength kept his hips pinned to the bed when his hips attempted to buck wildly at the sudden sensations around his pulsing shaft and Minato had swallowed all of the shouts that attempted to escape the other man's throat.

After a moment, as Kushina had pulled off the turgid member Minato had slowly drew back from the kiss to begin nibbling his way along the older man's jaw before he licked his way down Sakumo's throat until he reached the crook of his neck. He was heading to an area of Sakumo's neck that experience and experimentation had taught the three was extremely sensitive for Sakumo. So much so that the barest of pressure there could cause the wolf summoner to become aroused or, if he already was aroused, to keen with pleasure. If sufficient stimulation was lavished there then Sakumo would cum from just that alone, a fact that his lovers often took advantage of if they wished to pleasure him out of his mind.

Once he had reached it, Minato waited until Kushina had swallowed the elder man to the root and was working her throat around him to bite down hard right over it. The two sensations caused the silver haired man to convulse wildly and ejaculate into his partner's mouth, as he came Minato had continued to suck gently over where he had bitten. He only pulled back once he was certain that Sakumo would have a large hickey there unless the older man healed it which he no doubt would do to prevent his son from wondering who gave his father it.

As Kushina pulled off the sensitive shaft she had sucked gently but firmly to ensure that she had completely milked him of the load, causing the panting man to whine, much like one of his summons if denied a treat, the older man had tangled his fingers in both Kushina's and Minato's hair. The red head smirked at how quickly Sakumo had recovered to hardness and pitied the civilian women who had civilian husbands, she had overheard enough conversations to know that it took non Shinobi men time to recover from an orgasm. However, the conversations that she had heard held between civilian women with Shinobi husbands caused her to realize that what she experienced with her two lovers was pretty much the norm, Shinobi had more stamina than civilians and thus recovered more quickly.

As she stared smugly down at her partner Kushina thought to herself idly, _'I wonder if that's the real reason behind civilian girls obsessing over becoming the wife of a ninja… They should try for a Genin husband with little hope of obtaining a higher rank, they're too delicate for a Chuunin or Jounin's instincts,'_ Kushina was well aware that unless the ninja trained fiercely to condition themselves not to, a Shinobi always ran the risk of hurting a non Shinobi lover.

Most of her family bypassed that training by a simple seal placed on their spouse that caused them, even deep in what their clan called the 'Red Haze' the main reason behind the name was the simple fact that everyone who fell into it said that they literally saw red, to instinctively recognize their mate and never harm them. In fact a few reported that the seal seemed to cause them to protect their mate more fiercely, unknown to Sakumo and Minato, even though they were higher ranking Shinobi and not civilians, she had placed the seal on them. Even if there was the smallest chance that she could fall into the Red Haze, she wanted the two protected from her since she'd be fighting with all she could as hard as she could while she doubted that the pair could hurt her enough to cause her to jolt out of her rage.

The seal would protect them from any of the bouts of rage that could engulf her so she included it within the cheetah summoning seal that she placed it on them, when she had placed Sakumo's seal over his heart while Minato's was on his right forearm. Only an Uzumaki trained in the art of sealing could detect the seal hidden in the summoning seal, her blood that had been in the ink used to draw the seal would interact with the hidden seal to cause her to deem them to be hers even if she was under genjutsu or they were under a henge.

Kushina was drawn out of her thoughts by a choked moan from Minato, she glanced up to see Sakumo holding Minato's head back with a tight grip and was nipping along the blue eyed man's throat. She chuckled as she raked her nails down the blond man's hip, her eyes gleamed when that action tore a keening cry from her boyfriends throat, however her smug look vanished when her two lovers glanced down at her with predatory gazes before they pulled her up and rolled her so she was pinned between them. "Meep," she whimpered when she was held against Minato's chest as Sakumo shoved her thighs apart so he could shoulder his way between them, her eyes widened as her partner smirked up at her.

"Guess what he plans to do to you, my darling dragon," Minato purred into her ear as he held her wrists behind her back while her legs were draped over his thighs to keep them spread. Without waiting for a reply from the whining woman he said, "he's going to spread you open and lick you until you've screamed fro us at least five times." As he had spoken Sakumo had trailed kisses along her legs from her knee to the join of her thigh and hip, he trailed the tip of his tongue along the crease causing her to shiver. He then nipped his way across her lower abdomen, completely ignoring her core, to lick down the other crease and nip his way down her thigh to her knee, as he did he had his hands on her hips with his thumbs rubbing just along the edge of her lips.

Once she was shivering and twitching from arousal, he spread her apart as he did his eyes gleamed darkly with pleasure at the sight of how swollen and wet his teasing had made her. Her eyes widened in shock when he skipped all of his usual foreplay steps to capture her clit with his mouth and sucked on it firmly while he flicked the tip with his tongue. Her hips bucked against his hands as a scream of ecstasy had erupted from her mouth and liquid gushed from her. She could feel him smirking smugly against her but couldn't bring herself to care past the rush of endorphins from her orgasm, Minato had released her hands from his double handed grip to hold them in a single hand grip.

His free hand was palming her left breast, he was using his fingers to alternatively pinch and flick her nipple, he glanced down over her shoulder and stared into dilated black eyes before he had nipped his way up her throat. He captured her right earlobe with his teeth and lightly bit it before he released it in order to purr, "there is number one, four more screams to go… I do hope you're up for it but then if you're not it won't matter because you won't be in the mood to complain much, will you, my lovely one?"

The two men were amused when she managed to gather enough wits to gasp out, "if either of you even think about stopping, I'm going to kill you painfully!" She shot a glare down at Sakumo before she had turned the glare over her shoulder and stated, "Danzo means stop, Kimi means slow down and if I don't say either of those then do whatever you want!"

Both men smirked at that, every time they played a game the one submitting chose new words, the common word for all three of them was 'Danzo' for a full stop of the play, this was due to the fact that none of them would ever say his name in the middle of sex unless one of two things were happening. One reason would be if for some inexplicable reason the man showed up while they were in the middle of it and the second reason would be if something was horribly wrong. With her tactic permission, the pair redoubled their efforts, Sakumo quickly brought her to two more bone shaking orgasms, both of them leaving her hungry for more, he was fingering her with each orgasm. After her first one he had slipped a single finger into her and didn't add another until her second orgasm, same with the third finger and orgasm, she realized that if he kept up his pattern he'd either put something else inside of her after her fifth orgasm or he'd be attempting fisting her.

As she was swiftly approaching her fourth orgasm she had worried her lower lip as her mind raced as she contemplated if she wanted to try that particular act or not. However as she recovered from the fourth orgasm and felt Sakumo carefully fitting the fourth finger inside of her, she had heard Minato growl into her ear, "I bet you're wondering just what he's up to, aren't you, Kushina? Well, lets just say that we read about an interesting little act for a woman with two male lovers to do in bed," as he had spoken his hand had ventured down and spread her lips wide apart for Sakumo to better attack her clit. "The text had a very, very interesting picture with it as well," he added and as he paused long enough to suck a hickey into existence on her pulse point before he said with dark blue eyes. He had ground his rock hard cock into the small of her back as he had spoken, "it was of a woman being penetrated by her two lovers," her brow had furrowed at that in confusion, she had been penetrated by the two men before so what was so different about the picture. Her unspoken question was answered when Minato purred in growling voice, "both men were sheathed almost to the hilt in her stretched out cunt!"

She whimpered at that before she screamed out her fifth orgasm, she relaxed between the pair, practically boneless from the last successive three orgasms, as she did she felt Sakumo lift her hips up until she could feel Minato's cock at her entrance. However, neither man allowed her to sink down further onto his turgid shaft after the head of it had penetrated her hot, tight grasping hole. Instead, she felt as Sakumo moved so he was between her spread thighs and he spread Minato's thighs apart with his own causing her own legs to spread even further apart since they were still draped over the blonds legs. She gasped as the silver haired man pressed into her alongside Minato, causing her already widely stretched channel to widen even further, Minato's breath hissed out as the tight heat clenched down even further around him thanks to the extra girth of the other cock.

Pinned as she was between the two men Kushina had no choice but to either take the unrelenting pressure of the combined girth of the two men or to give them one of her safe words. As she was about to call out her little brother's nickname, something inside of her relaxed further, thus allowing the two men to slide inside of her even deeper than before. She could feel the pulsing and twitching of the two shafts inside of her, she panted all through the twitching echoing through her body as the two men resisted moving until she had given them both the okay to do so. As they waited for her to give them a sign she could feel just how rock hard their muscles had become as they strained against the urge to thrust in and out of her. She was almost too tight around them, causing both of them to have to think of the nastiest things they had ever seen or done to keep from releasing prematurely inside of her.

After about five to ten minutes later, Kushina hesitantly moved her hips between the pair, both men hissed from the friction that the movement induced before Sakumo slowly drew his cock out of her. He left the head of his shaft within her, he then snapped his hips forward driving himself back into her, as he slammed himself into her, Minato had withdrawn his own cock. When the blond had shoved himself back inside of her the silver haired widower pulled himself out again, Minato had released her hands from his grip once the pair had started moving in hand out of her. She had her left hand tangled in Sakumo's silver locks while her right was tangled in golden blond hair as she thrashed her head from side to side as they pounded in and out of her.

After two minutes of this Kushina shook herself through her sixth orgasm, as she clenched down around them, Sakumo and Minato slammed themselves into her before they came as well. Due to the aftershocks of her orgasm the two men stayed hard within her and after they had rolled the rather compliant woman so Sakumo was lying on his back with her straddling his hips. Minato covered the two of them and with Sakumo holding her hips in place the two of them began to thrust within her again, hard and fast. She rested her forehead against Sakumo's as she gasped and keened her pleasure at the vigorous pounding she was receiving from them.

Her nails were alternatively digging into Sakumo's shoulders hard enough to draw blood or clawing at the sheets beneath them, the dark eyed Jounin tangled his fingers through her hair and pulled her into a kiss. He swallowed her moans and when he felt her trembling increase along with the tensing of her muscles he ground up into her every time Minato thrust down into her. After just two minutes of this Kushina broke the kiss in order to utter a hoarse scream as her seventh orgasm slammed into her, Sakumo felt her clench down on them and only sheer force of will prevented his own orgasm. He felt Minato's hips stutter their movement before the blond had sheathed himself deep within their lover as he groaned out his own pleasure into her shoulder. Although he hadn't softened the blond pulled himself out of her tight channel to allow Sakumo to move as freely and as fast as he wanted to.

His blue eyes gleamed as he watched the pair move together for a few moments before the older man pulled out of her, he moved them so she was on her hands and knees. He then palmed her ass and spread her so he could first take a look to see just how wet she was before he slammed back into her, the pair were positioned so Minato was kneeling in front of her. As the red head writhed on the brutal thrusts of her lovers cock she felt Minato tangle his fingers through her hair and forced her to look up at him, he was fisting his own cock with his right hand as he did. She had wet her lips and panted with breathy moans as she gazed up at him, "do you want to taste me, Kushina," he asked her rhetorically. "I think you do," he purred without allowing her to answer him, his eyes glinted as he gazed down at her open mouth before he continued, "look at you, panting and moaning like a whore for our cocks!"

Her grey eyes flashed red at that and he knew that as much as she adored him talking dirty, that if he didn't either correct or explain himself she would kick him out of bed and only allow Sakumo in it for at least a week. He had been her first lover and Minato knew that very well, so he hurriedly purred down at her, "but only our whore, our little slut who guards our treasure ever so fiercely, aren't you, my lovely one? Only a whore for me and 'Kumo. You're only ever hungry for our cocks and our cocks alone!" Her eyes had returned to their normal grey as they dropped to half mast at those words and she purred up at him as she placed her hands on his thighs before she lapped at the head of his cock like a cat would a bowl of cream.

As she gazed up at him, the red haired Chuunin smiled predatorily as she purred out in a husky voice, "that's right my 'Nato, I'm only a whore for my 'Nato and my 'Kumo." She had ground back into each of her partner's lust filled thrusts as she'd spoken and she felt her oldest lover tighten his grip on her hips as his pace became erratic. "Let me taste you, 'Nato," she pleaded as Sakumo pounded into her and the blond gripped her hair tightly before he guided her head down until it was level with his shaft.

Once she had engulfed the head of his cock within her mouth he had pressed her head down steadily until her nose was pressed against the nest of hair at the base of it. She smirked around the shaft before she inhaled the scent trapped within the nest before she purred in satisfaction around his cock which caused his hips to buck, not only in surprise at the pleasure but also by pure instinct.

His eyes snapped open from where they had closed when she had gone down on him and he stared down at her in worry as he drew back enough to clear his cock from her throat so she could catch her breath if she needed to. Instead she pulled him back into her mouth and down her throat, as she kept him buried there with her tight grip on his hips she had purred again before she slowly bobbed up and down on his cock. She had a challenging glint to her eyes as she stared up at him, his blue eyes gleamed as he said huskily, "alright, if that's what you want, I'll happily fuck your throat until I cum!"

True to his word, he fucked her mouth not even letting her move her head, however, he did make sure that he cleared her throat enough that she could catch a breath between each thrust of his shaft. Sakumo and him worked out a rhythm so every time Sakumo slammed into her it drove her mouth back onto Minato's cock, she sucked on the shaft in her mouth every time it drew back and every time it entered she relaxed her throat muscles. When Sakumo drew his cock out of her, she would tighten her cunt and when he drove back in she would grind back into his thrust while she relaxed her vaginal muscles.

After twenty minutes of this Sakumo came inside of her while he was sheathing himself into her to the hilt, Minato had drew back until only the head of his cock was inside her mouth when he came. She swallowed all of the viscous fluid and lapped at his cock to clean it off, she then stretched between them as she purred in contentment as well as satisfaction from her eight orgasms. She glanced at the two men's still rock hard shafts with puzzlement since neither of them were trying to either make her or themselves cum again. Her silent confusion was answered when Minato purred, "I seem to recall a rather naughty drunken confession from you, Kushina-Chan."

Her eyes widened when Sakumo continued by saying, "I recall that particular confession as well," he glanced at her briefly before he moved her to the other side of the bed and leaned over the still reclining blond. "It went something along the lines of, _'I'd love to see just what you two do in bed when I'm not there with you,'_ wasn't it, Minato-Kun," Sakumo purred as he nuzzled the younger man's cheek.

Minato smirked up at the older man before he purred back while he glanced at the only female occupant of the bed, "that was how it went as far as I can recall, Sakumo-Kun," Kushina's cheeks flushed at the tones of their voices and the words coming from their mouths. That flush deepened by a combination of arousal and embarrassment as she watched the two men kiss each other, their hands, calloused by repeated years of training and fighting, groped and caressed hard muscles overlaid with soft smooth skin marred only by a few scars. The French kiss between the two men was more like a fight than the ones that the two men shared with her, after several moments of them kissing it seemed as if Sakumo won the tongue fight.

Her eyebrows shot upward when she realized that the kiss had apparently determined the roles that the two men would play during their bout of lovemaking since Sakumo retrieved the lube hidden under his pillow and coated the first three fingers of his right hand with it. She rubbed her thighs together, wet from the three's combined fluids that had leaked from her cunt, together as she watched her Jounin partner preparing their lover for penetration. The blond was moaning with pleasure as the widower shoved his fingers in and out of the tight opening hidden between the muscled cheeks of his ass, as he moaned Minato was squirming restlessly.

Once the blond man was able to take three fingers with ease, the silver haired man withdrew them from Minato and replaced them with the head of his hard cock, he had Minato's legs draped over his shoulders as he positioned himself. The two men groaned in pleasure, though Minato's was slightly pained since the two men didn't often get to enjoy this particular act. The silver haired male sank hilt deep inside of Minato, the blond bared his throat for the wolf summoner's biting kisses, which Sakumo obliged the blonds silent request and bit along the pale column. Kushina's grey eyes darkened with renewed arousal as she watched her lovers make love with each other, because despite the force and intensity behind the thrusts there was a tenderness to every touch bestowed upon the other.

As the men groaned out their orgasm, Kushina whimpered softly as she brought herself to her ninth and final climax of the night, the three panted in unison to regain their breath from the orgasms. The two men ended up curled around their female partner and nuzzled into her happily as Sakumo purred between panting breathes, "that's a fairly typical sample of how we are in bed without you there with us. Any questions or comments for us, Taiyo," Sakumo asked her gently with a raised eyebrow as he poked her lightly in the shoulder.

Kushina smiled tiredly back at him as she said in a bemused tone, "nope, no questions to be asked, but I do have one comment to make," at that both men propped themselves up and stared down at her curiously. She finished her sentence with a grin on her face, "you two really need to do that in front of me more often! That was among one of the hottest things I've ever seen," she then waggled her eyebrow suggestively while she leered at the now blushing Jounins. She cackled at their embarrassment with twinkling grey eyes, it wasn't often she could embarrass them both with such ease.

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**End Mature Scene! You may now begin reading once more if you are under age.**

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With the memory of her and Minato's laugher still echoing in his mind Sakumo opened his eyes with a sigh, when his dreams were made of memories like that, he sometimes wished that he could sleep forever. "Three more months, old wolf, then you're going home whether the Hokage likes it or not," the currently brown eyed man muttered as he ran his fingers through his red hair irritably. He rose from his bed and got dressed, although it was still autumn there was already snow on the ground, as he sat down to put on his boots, Sakumo played with the hidden pendant that held his henge in place. He gazed out the glass of the window as he murmured, "I'll see you two soon, I promise, just wait and see, I'll be back soon enough…"

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Dan listened with half an ear as Nawaki chattered on about his cousins only son, "man did you see what he did to those goons! He sure showed them a thing or two about messing with our family! Go Naru-Chan," the former Genin cheered with a fist pup as he watched the fight of Team Seven's on the bridge again for the three hundredth time in a row.

Nawaki then pouted as he whined, "Dan, I want a bridge named after me too!"

The Medic nin sighed as he facepalmed before he said, "I doubt that you will ever have anyone who would want to name a bridge after you since A: we're dead and B: there were special circumstances that caused them to name the bridge after Naru-Chan."

Nawaki huffed lightly as he muttered to himself, "ruin my dreams and rain on my parade, why don't you…"

Dan sighed gain and once more prayed for patience as he idly wished that he could rejoin the living so he could be with Tsunade as well as to escape Nawaki's pouting for a while by fobbing him off on someone else for a change.

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Shikaku stared after the last Uchiha in bemusement since the father of the Suna Genin was trailing along behind the young teen, "what are you staring at," Inochi's voice came from behind him. The Nara had glanced over his shoulder at his former teammate and saw Tsume standing next to him along with Hiashi Hyuga, the lazy man gestured to the pair a few yards away.

"Just watching those two," he said in a drawling tone as the other three Jounins sat down at the table and ordered a drink each; Hiashi took a cup of hot green tea while Tsume took a bottle of warm sake to share with Inochi.

The four eyed the pair and watched as the red haired Suna Jounin apparently began to argue with Sasuke about the teen buying the clothing for him, after several moments the four snickered over how Akasuka apparently gave up on the verbal fight in frustration while Sasuke looked very smug about his win. As the pair passed their table the four heard the teen saying, "I seem to recall telling you that while you're in Konoha you and the kids are my responsibility, as such if you or they need something then **I'll** buy it."

Sasuke had nodded an absent greeting to the four Heads as they passed by them, "you did say that," Akasuka conceded before he stated with his arms crossed, "I just don't see why you had to buy me clothes! I brought clothes with me, you even agreed that the clothes I brought with me were appropriate for Konoha's autumn and winter seasons!" As he had spoken he had sent the thirteen year old an affectionately exasperated look, a look that was often seen on the faces of husbands whose wives have obsessions that although they don't understand they do indulge. That odd thought was back up by the Suna nin's next comment, "but I guess if it makes you happy I don't really need to know why…"

Sasuke picked up an apple and inspected it as he said absently, "that's good since you weren't going to get an explanation anyway." Tsume bit her lip to keep from roaring with laughter at the pouty put upon expression that had crossed Akasuka's face at that comment, Inochi had no such compunctions or impulses so he openly snickered.

Quite a few civilians goggled at Akasuka when Temari had raced over and asked Sasuke if she could get a scroll about the nuances of the fan language of Konoha, for some reason each country had subtle differences in each fan movements meaning. Temari rather enjoyed learning them all even if she never planned to use them at all. As she glomped him, the blond fan user said with a pleading tone, "please Mother, I promise I won't argue with you about chores or fight with my brothers about inane stupid stuff!"

At that Sasuke sighed indulgently before he said sternly, "alright, Temari-Chan, but I'll hold you to that promise. Now go tell Kankuro and Gaara to come see me, I need to speak with them about something." After she had cheerfully chirped her agreement to retrieving her brothers as well as to her promise she had kissed the younger boy's cheek then her fathers as she called out her farewells.

Three minutes later, Sasuke had a red head with dark circles around his eyes plastered to his side while a slightly older red headed boy was standing next to Akasuka with a curious look on his face. "So why did you want to see us, Mom," the older boy asked before his eyes widened and he blurted out, "not that we aren't happy to see you, we were just curious!"

Sasuke chuckled lightly before he said in a very indulgent tone while he ruffled Gaara's hair causing the twelve year old to purr, "your sister asked if she could buy a scroll for herself and I wanted to let you two know that as long as you both promise to behave, I'll let you get one thing extra a piece."

"We promise, Mom/Mother," chorused the two brothers at that before Gaara asked, "was there anything else you needed from us, Mother?"

After a moment of thought Sasuke shook his head as he stated idly, "no, nothing I can think of…" He then ruffled the pairs hair as he said with a soft smile, causing all of his fan girls to simultaneously sigh longingly and glare at the two for gaining the rare sight, "alright then, I'll see you two at home for dinner otherwise the three of you are free to do what you want." Both boys darted off after they had pressed a swift kiss each to his cheeks and a shouted goodbye at their father, as Akasuka attempted to sidle away from the teen Sasuke's gaze snapped over at him as he asked in a rhetorical manner, "and where do you think you're going? We aren't done shopping yet, so get back here!"

Sympathetic husbands and boyfriends winced in pity with Akasuka, the incognito Kazekage trudged back over to the young Genin, as he walked past the table all four Jounins heard him whimper. Once he had returned to Sasuke's side the Uchiha led the way toward his favorite weapon shop, the teen wanted the older mans opinion on a particular weapon there. As the pair walked away the Shinobi heard the rumors already flying about how the teen was acting as the mother of the three Suna Genin and how the three's father apparently indulged Sasuke in all of his wants or desires. The four clan heads smirked at the way the rumors became more and more outrageous as they spread, after a moment or to the four heads split up to return to their homes.

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"An excellent idea, Hiashi," one of the twelve elders that made up the Hyuga Clan council said after Hiashi suggested in a falsely absent tone that Neji be his daughters bodyguard in her new clan.

"And as the Elder clan of the two we will handle all disciplinary disputes or measures of the pair," added another arrogantly.

Hiashi held back a soft laugh at that since he had already compared the dates on the Slytherin family tree to their own and the Slytherin Clan was far older than the Hyuga even without the Uzumaki clan's age backing them up. Hinata had been right, as soon as they seen that the elder clan would be the ones to discipline the two adopted Genins they had arrogantly assumed that they would be the elder clan despite not having very many allies as old as they were. Most of the Hyuga's allied clans were all younger than they were by at least ten generations unlike the Uzumaki clan's allied clans which were all of rather similar comparable ages to the Uzumaki clan.

Besides that fact was the simple statement made by the Uzumaki Head about the Slytherin Clan, _"although small and few in number, the Slytherin Clan is actually about three hundred years older than ours since the age of the clan is counted from the date of birth of the eldest clan member at the time of it's founding."_ As he listened to the clan council members gloat over their apparent victory of merely having to let another clan adopt the weak heiress of the clan and her marked cousin to gain an alliance with an outside clan not influenced by the founding clans of Konoha. At least it wasn't as far as the council was concerned, _'I can only hope Camilla is having a better time than I am getting that self updating family tree from Kimihiro-San…'_ Hiashi's thoughts were all that was keeping him from laughing at the Hyuga clan council about their arrogance as he watched them sign their agreements to the adoption contract without reading all of the terms and conditions that applied to them once it was signed.

As they handed the contract over to him one of the elders stated in an absent tone, "inform Neji of his new position within the Slytherin Clan and make sure you warn him that his participation in the adoption is an order that we'll be happy to enforce."

Hiashi bit back his angry retort as he accepted the scroll with well hidden glee as he solemnly stated, "of course, I shall do so right away," he then bowed and left the council chambers of his clan. As he strode down the hall he allowed his smirk to flash across his face before he wiped it clean of all emotions, he stopped a young branch member and said, "inform Hinata and Neji that I need to see them in my office as soon as possible."

The branch member nodded and bowed as she said in a subservient tone, "of course, Hiashi-Sama, right away," as she sped off the Head of the Clan sighed and wished for the fifty thousandth time that he could rid the branch family of the seal.

He then made his way down the hall to his office to wait for his daughter and nephew to show up there. As he waited for them he thought to himself, _'it's a good thing that Hinata and I already told him of our plans or my nephew would freak out at this order…'_

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As Hiashi was gaining his clan councils approval to Neji's adoption into her clan Camilla had gone to Kimihiro and asked him to create a self updating family tree for her Clan with seals to prevent it from unrolling past the youngest clan member. Kimihiro agreed to do that, when he did all of the people near them goggled in shock, Naruto's eyebrows rose as he watched his uncle with interest along with Sakura, Kakashi, Iruka and Baki. The red haired man asked her, "do you have a book or scroll that you want to use or will any kind do for you," as he had spoken he had pulled out a scroll from a seal on the back of his forehead protector.

"I have a scroll made from snakeskin," at that comment she got more than one baffled look and she explained, "a dear friend of mine told me to make sure that his body got put to use after his death. He didn't want it to decompose needlessly, he was old and even his family agreed that it was best if his body went to use, so the Uzumaki clan helped me with his body," she stated before she held up her odd sword as she said wryly, "I asked only for his skin and two of his fangs."

Kimihiro hummed before he said thoughtfully, "that's right, Manda's father died nearly eighty years ago, he came to the village to die by his summoner's side. Could you unroll the scroll of skin for me, I need to mark the edges with the seals so it keeps updating with new information as well as to keep it from unrolling too far."

She nodded as she unsealed a scroll from one of her many bangles and set it down before she hissed at it, _"open and unroll yourself,_ " The group stared in shock to see a scroll unroll to over three hundred feet in length and about forty feet in width, she smirked smugly as she stated, "my friend was quite large and I received almost all of his skin. I trust that this size will be quite adequate," she added absently.

"Oh yeah," Kimihiro said equally as absently before he said, "this scroll should last for many generations after today…" With that said he began to mix a series of inks and a pint of Camilla's blood together, the final result was a little over a gallon of liquid, he had about a cup of that reserved for the seal and with a look of fierce concentration on his face he wrote the seals. Once all of the seals had flashed to signal their activation he carefully poured the remaining blood/ink mixture onto one of the seals, it absorbed all of it. As they watched, writing began to appear on the scroll starting with a single name which had a line leading down to another name which had a line connecting it to yet another and continued on in that fashion. The second name on the scroll was Salazar Slytherin beneath the name was two dates, the year of birth and year of death, the two years marked under his name caused most of those who read them to goggle. The first year was one thousand and four while the second was the year twelve hundred and fifty, Kakashi blinked at that sine if the dates were right then the person who the name belonged to died at the age of two hundred and forty-six!

The third man was named Thaddeus Slytherin-Gryffindor, those reading the names assumed that the parents had decided to hyphenate their clan names. The dates under his name were one thousand eighty-six to eleven ninety-five, a line led from his name down to a Phineas Slytherin-Gryffindor, with the dates of eleven sixty-seven to twelve thirty written below it. A line led from him down to an Obelia Turk nee Slytherin-Gryffindor, the dates under her name were twelve twenty-three to thirteen thirty-eight, she apparently had a son named Harlen Turk who was born in twelve sixty-two and died in thirteen seventy-two. The scroll continued as such with the occasional change of the clan name, some names appeared twice or more in the line as if they were being handed down.

With a swipe of a bloody finger the scroll shrunk until it was only showed the names and dates, Camilla then rolled it up as she stated, "thank you Lord Kimihiro. This will do perfectly for the adoption tonight," she then turned to Sasuke, who had just walked up along with Akasuka. "Speaking of which, we are still using the Uchiha compound for the ritual, correct, Sasuke-San," she raised her eyebrow in inquiry as she placed the now small scroll into the seal once again.

Sasuke nodded as he said, "of course, like it or not the Uchiha's are related by blood to the Hyuga clan as well as the Uzumaki clan, it is only fitting that we host the adoption of two Hyuga clan members into an allied clan of the Uzumaki clan."

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Eight hours after the Hyuga clan council signed the agreement of adoption, Hinata and Neji were dressed in white robes without their forehead protectors, Neji was forced to bare his Caged Bird seal. His cousin fidgeted nervously while he outwardly maintained a calm façade while he inwardly raged over the shame of the seal. The pair began to trip from the Hyuga clan compounds to the Uchiha compound, since the adoption couldn't take place in either of the two clans compound they had to use a neutral one, well as neutral as a blood related clan to both the Hyuga and the Slytherin clan main ally. Hiashi was clad in the clan Head robes and led the pair to the compound he would place his own clan on his daughter to reassure her that she was still his first born no matter who's heir she was. It would also serve to tell the clan council that even though she wasn't his heir she was still his child.

Hiashi also planned to do the same for Neji but instead of the Kanji for 'Favored Daughter,' that he planned to use the Kanji for Hinata, the Head of the Hyuga clan was planning to use the Kanji that meant, 'Favored Son of my Brother.' The adoption ritual combined any blood connection and the words to figure out which part of their line to replace, with Hinata it would take her mother's blood and replace it with Camilla's DNA while her fathers claim would re-solidify his place as her father. When Sasuke and Naruto had adopted Sakura as their sister caused the seal to randomly determine which of the four possibilities would be the Mother and which would be the Father. Of course, only Sasuke's Mother or Father could take the place of her Mother just as only one of Naruto's parents could take the place of her Father. However, the words that the two had said make it impossible for Naruto's Father to become one of her two new parents so his mother's DNA took her former Father's DNA's place.

Since her new parents were needed for the record the Hokage had someone running the tests on it, the test results wouldn't be available until the next day but everyone agreed that if Fukaku had taken the place of her mother than it would make for a very odd looking family tree. Approaching from the other side of the alter was Camilla, she was clad in the forest green robes with silver serpents draped upon it, she was also wore a diadem made of a glowing silver colored metal, it was made of several snakes twined together forming a rope.

As the clans watched, the Hyuga, Inuzuka, Yamanaka, Nara as well as several other come to watch the adoption, even the Haruno's attended but were still unaware if their former daughters adoption into the Uchiha clan. She was clad in deep blue robes with the Uchiha fan and Uzumaki whirlpool on the back, the robe were trimmed in sea green and decorated with swirls as well as a faint nine tailed fox hidden in the swirls and to show the former home of her second clan. However, she was out of their line of sight so they wouldn't be disturbing the peace of the adoption with their shock over it.

Once the blood/ink mixture had been applied to Hinata and was glowing a pale violet and silver respectively the pair laid a forefinger upon her third eye which was marked with the kanji for eternity. Camilla stated "I, Camilla Slytherin, Mother to Salazar by right of adoption do hereby declare Hinata Hyuga as my blood daughter and heir." Her marks shown a bright silver as she waited for Hiashi to finish speaking his claim on her new heir.

"I, Hiashi Hyuga, Head of the Hyuga Clan, Father to Hinata and Hanabi Hyuga, do hereby renew my claim upon my eldest daughter," the pale lavender ink glowed even brighter at the stern mans words.

"As it has been said, as it has been written, so Mote it be done," the pair chorused and the ink flashed brightly before it faded from sight completely, as Hinata opened her eyes Neji stared at her in shock. The normally pupil-less eyes of the Hyuga had been replaced with eyes that had the same slit like pupils that Camilla had, unknown to the watchers the changes that Hinata was undergoing wasn't done yet and wouldn't be done for at least one week after the adoption.

Once Neji had been adopted the Hokage stepped forward and stated, "clans please present your family trees so we may determine which is the eldest clan as per the contract." The Hyuga clan elders presented the clans scroll tree and the Hokage unfurled it to read aloud, "Abukuro Hyuga, born nine hundred twenty-three, died nine hundred eighty-three. The Hyuga clan is one thousand and seventy-four years old," the clan elders watched arrogantly as Camilla presented the shrunken scroll. Their confidant looks faded when the scroll unwound itself, when Camilla had resealed it, the scroll hadn't finished writing itself so compared to the simple line version seen in the Uzumaki compound a huge sprawling family tree unfolded before them all.

Hiruzen leaned over and murmured aloud, "huh, I'm at the youngest members of the clan instead of the eldest." his eyebrows shot up as he stated, "I do believe I've found the current Head of your Clan, Slytherin-San!"

At that Camilla's eyebrows rose and she said, "oh, you did. Care to call out the name of their parent, siblings or children," she asked from between her two new clan members.

"The listed parent of your clan head is a James Andrew Potter-Lupin, the clan head also has a younger brother born in this year, his name is Theodore Remus Potter-Lupin," Hiruzen called out absently as he traced the line, he then called out, "now this name is rather ironic!" He smirked as he stated, "Kushina Ruri Urahara, Head of the Slytherin and Gryffindor Clans, Co-Head of the Noir Clan and second in line for Headship of the Potter Clan!" He then walked p to the other end and read the name there, he goggled at it since it implied a very odd fact, the fact that the owner of said name was still alive which made her age the age of the clan. "The Slytherin clans is one thousand three hundred and forty-two years old, the date of birth of it's eldest member at the date of it's founding was the year six hundred fifty-five!" At that statement the Hyuga clan elders realized that their clan was younger than the other clan by two hundred and sixty-eight years.

The Hyuga Clan council knew that they couldn't protest the contract and silently conceded victory to the Slytherin Clan. They would not attempt to control either of the two new Slytherin Clan members ever again, no matter either of the pairs choices since they would be learning new moves and clan techniques.


	19. Chapter Eighteen: Of Talks, Duels and Centaurs!

**A/N: I'll try to update in about a week or so but no promises! And although I've pretty much come to a decision on the whole everybody coming back via the IWR Jutsu I still want more opinions! Later - Strifes_Lady of Dragon Cave  
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**Chapter Eighteen:** _Of Talks, Duels and Centaurs!_

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Kushina absently gave the portrait guarding her parents rooms the password and entered when it had swung open, her Papa had asked her to stop by so the two could talk to her about something concerning the family. She saw her Dad sitting on the sofa and for a split second he was overlaid by an image of her father from her previous life, she blinked and it had vanished from view. She smiled down at her Dad/Mother as she asked softly, "hi Dad, where is Papa at?"

James smiled up at her before he set aside the issue of Transfiguration monthly that he had been reading and motioned for her to come over to him, although puzzled by she acquiesced to his request. Her eyes widened when he had pulled her down into his lap before he had nuzzled her temple affectionately, "your Papa will be along shortly," he had murmured into her ear and sure enough Remus walked through the door. As he came in through the entrance Remus rolled his neck and shoulders, a series of pops rang out, although he had taken the opportunity to have Orihime partially cure him of the disease Remus was still technically a werewolf. Orihime could cure the part of Lycanthropy disease that caused the infected to forcibly transformed every full moon as well as the contagious bite, however, she couldn't completely remove the disease from those who had had the infection for more than five years.

Remus smiled at seeing his mate and oldest pup on the couch, he shrugged out of his robes as he said, "hello you two, I'm glad you could stop by, Kushina. I had a question to ask you about a comment you made shortly after we rescued Lily, James, Fabian and Gideon from Voldy's prison." She furrowed her brow in confusion as she glanced up at him questioningly, he smiled as he sat down on the couch beside the two before he said, "you said that you had a son in your previous life as Kushina Uzumaki. However it sounded as if he was still alive and well, so I was wondering if you could tell us about him," he ended with a wry rueful smile and Kushina glanced between her parents with a soft smile.

She then ruffled her fathers tawny locks as she said cheerfully, "of course, Papa, I'd be happy to! My Naruto was born on October 10th twelve years ago, both my husband and I died on the same night that he'd been born, I was the Jinchuuriki to Kyuubi no Youko, Kurama."

At that James frowned before he asked, "how could he have been born twelve years ago when you were born seventeen years ago?"

She giggled at their confused expressions before she said, "the King sent our souls into the past after our deaths to await reincarnation in my case and to be a shinigami in my husbands case." She suddenly smiled as her golden eyes sparked up at them before she chirped, "thanks to Dobby, I've been able to go visit him several times so I know that he's been alright these last few years."

At that comment both of her parents stared down at her oddly before Remus asked, "how did you manage that, Sweetheart? And more importantly, how did Dobby help?" Although he didn't say a word it was plain to see that James had agreed with and wanted answers to the same questions that her Papa had asked.

Kushina giggled again at the looks on their faces before she said, "I had Dobby check to see if my old ANBU codename had been reassigned to a new recruit but as it turned out the Hokage permanently retired the identity! So I had Dobby pop me just inside of Naruto's apartment, I wanted to double check a few things," her gold eyes flashed red and black briefly before she said, "lets just say that when I get back to Konoha without having to sneak around, the entire village will receive a tongue lashing like never before!"

At that both wizard's eyebrows shot up and when she saw their stares Kushina explained in a tense tone, "he was living alone despite not being a Genin and was used to having an ANBU in his apartment checking up on him! I do not like what that implies, besides he is always happy when I come visit him and it took him over five months of weekend visits along with the occasional mid-week visit before he realized that I wasn't going to stop visiting him unless I was dead!" As she had spoken the red haired witch had stalked back and forth across the room in front of the couch, she gestured wildly as she did, her eyes kept flickering back and forth between her normal eye color to the Sharingan before they settled upon the Sharingan.

Both men watched their daughter with bemused expressions on their faces as she smirked at them before she said gleefully, "he inherited my sense of humor and pranking ways. I have told him all about some of the pranks me and Mikoto pulled when we were Genin, I think he ended up doing them over with his own little twists to them though."

James chuckled at that before he said with eyes more grey than hazel, "you always did like pulling pranks and if anyone saw you in that mask then they would probably just think that they saw a ghost!" He sighed as he stared at her with dancing eyes before he quipped, "my precious stone has always liked to play tricks on people, she's very much like a fox in that!"

Kushina froze when Remus had commented, "she gets that from her Granddad 'Rama, 'Nade-Chan was the same way but she unfortunately inherited the bad luck of her Grandmother. Mito would always lose at gambling unless something bad was going to happen or if someone with very good luck would bet on the same thing." When Remus glanced up at his daughter with knowing eyes, a woman overlaid him, she had midnight black hair and deep black eyes that sparkled with happiness at being able to play with their daughters mind.

Without thinking Kushina glared at the werewolf in a playful manner before she pouted at James and said, "Daddy, make Momma stop teasing me!"

James laughed before he said in a teasing tone, "sorry, Kushina-Baby, but your Momma has a mind of her own and not even I can stop that. Besides," he paused to grin at her impishly, "it's true!"

Kushina huffed as she muttered, "there are times where you show that you are indeed Uncle 'Rashi's brother, Daddy and this is one of them…" She then dropped down onto the couch between them as she pouted in sullen outrage that her own parents would say that, as she leaned against Remus' shoulder she asked, "when did you two start remembering? I was beginning to think that you two had your memories erased before being reincarnated…

Remus ran his fingers through his daughters hair as James answered her question, "about a month or so ago but I often said or did odd things starting about December of last year. But I always put it off as pregnancy hormones," he ended with a light snort. Before he continued by saying, "the first waking flashback I had kind of confused me since I didn't understand at first that the toddler you were playing with was little Kimi-Chan, I thought it was Teddy," he sheepishly admitted.

Kushina stared at her father in shock before she stated in a bland tone, "you thought that a vision of me and Kimi playing was of me and Teddy? Daddy, how could you do that, me and Kimi are only three years apart while Teddy is sixteen years younger than me!" She rolled her eyes at her fathers sheepish expression before she had turned to Remus and asked, "what about you, Papa? How did you first realize that I was your daughter twice over?"

With a chuckle Remus explained his dream to both his mate and his daughter, he had never told James about the dream he had that triggered all of his memories to flood his mind. When he told the two that he hadn't gotten any dreams or acted odd before that dream Kushina theorized that his mind still thought and memorized like an Uchiha so as soon as he had a trigger his mind made the connection needed for his suppressed memories to become conscious memories instead of subconscious. "That might just be it, Kushina," Remus conceded with a slight nod as he leaned back into the sofa, he then glanced down at her and asked, "so got any amusing memories of Naru-Chan to share with us?"

Kushina grinned before she said, "oh yeah, I got plenty to share with you," with a flourish she summoned her pensive and a few vials, she then proceeded to copy her memories so she could put them into the pensive. Once she had done that she then gestured for them to precede her into the memories and they shrugged before they did as their daughter bade, she then chuckled as she stepped up to the pensive to touch it herself.

She landed in the memory of her watching one of Naruto's many pranks, it had only been her iron will and control that kept her from laughing so hard that she would have fallen out of the tree she had been in. Naruto was painting words on the side of Danzo's house with careful brush strokes, his tongue was sticking out of the side of his mouth, the paint was an obnoxious green, neon green to be specific. To the side she saw her parents standing slightly back reading the words already written on the wall, a few of the sayings there were: ' **The gene pool could use a little chlorine.**

**Do old men wear boxers or briefs? - Depends.**

**You non-conformists are all alike.**

**Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.**

**I don't get even, I get odder.**

**My imaginary friend thinks you have problems.**

**Do NOT label me, I'm no soup can!'** Remus chuckled at the last one before he said with a grin on his face, "he is definitely your baby, Kushina, because that last one is you all over!"

She laughed as she nodded in agreement before she clapped him on the shoulder as she said, "he sure is, Papa, a regular chip off the old block," she then grinned unrepentantly as she quipped, "much to Hiruzen's despair!" The memory then shifted to the next as Naruto sped away from the scene as he snickered, the next memory caused James to fall to the ground in a fit of giggles while Remus groaned.

Naruto was painting the Hokage Monument again, this time he was carefully painting the four faces to their old appearances, color wise anyway, the Shodai and Nadaime Hokage's faces were already back to their old colors. The blond had even taken the time to paint Tobirama's red markings on his face in the exact places they were supposed to be. He had been putting the finishing touches on the thirds face when Kushina had showed up to watch him with a grin on her face, for once she had forgone her habitual mask but had her genjutsu bracelet activated. She had put a spell on herself so anyone that was unaware that she was reincarnated to see her as transparent, just like a ghost, so she felt quite safe in the fact that she could watch her son begin to paint his father.

As he dipped a brush in the yellow paint Naruto used the other hand to adjust his forehead protector, he had two clones helping him with the job while three cheetahs held a genjutsu in place so no one would spot him working on it. The clones were painting the details of the face while he handled the hair and eyebrows, one of them managed to put a look of amused seriousness into the blue eyes of his father. So it appeared as if the fourth was amused by something but knew that he had to be serious, Naruto had gotten the idea for that look from a picture he had seen of his parents together.

Finally when he finished Naruto vanished with the paint cans and had the cheetahs put yet another genjutsu over the art in order to make himself an alibi, besides everyone in the village knew that he sucked at genjutsus. That was the exact reason that he had Sakura and Sasuke search the Uchiha family library for one that would catch the attention of a Hyuga but be too complicated for one of them to pull off. He knew that the Hyuga would immediately inform the Hokage about the Genjutsu on the monument, so when it was discovered he casually wandered over and asked in a puzzled tone, "what's going on, Old Man Hokage?"

Hiruzen glanced down at Naruto with a slight frown before he said around his pipe, "I don't quite know yet, Naruto, there is a genjutsu on the Monument." He then raised an eyebrow at the boy as he asked, "did you have anything to do with this, Naruto?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow with a disbelieving aura around him before he stated with a mildly sardonic tone, "I'm afraid not, after all I suck at genjutsu's. You can ask Sakura, Sasuke or Kaka-Sensei about that, they'll tell you that I have to hurt myself like a demented idiot just to get myself out of one! I have no appitude for the things," he then shrugged at that before he said in a much happier tone, "Sensei says I get that from my mom!"

With that the genjutsu was removed from the Hokage Monument and everyone gasped in shocked awe, Hiruzen's eyebrows shot up while Naruto hadn't bothered to hide his own shock since someone had gone behind him to paint a faint hickey on both the first and the fourths necks. Of course it was his obvious and utter shock that convinced all of them that Naruto, for once, didn't have anything to do with the art on the monument. Everyone was in awe since the painting had been done to perfect likeness down to the faintest of scars, Hashirama eyes were painted to where they were dancing with pride and happiness while Tobirama's eyes carried a hint of sorrow and grief. The Sandaime's eyes were painted with a mixture of pride, happiness and his firm resolve but it was the eyes of the Yondaime Hokage that caught everyone's attention. Those who had known him well recognized it as the same look he got in his eyes whenever Sakumo or Kushina cracked a joke in either the middle of a debriefing or being prepared for a serious mission that required a lot of foreknowledge and a hell of a lot of luck.

Of course, with those two that luck just seemed to come to them naturally, it was only when they weren't on the same mission that their luck would go wonky on them, in fact Sakumo had joked that it was as if their luck doubled just by being together. Minato had once drunkenly dared/suggested them to test that luck the next time they had gotten a mission to the Islands. The area was known for three things: their gambling houses, the large open market with items from all over the Elemental Countries and their bright red tile roofs. He later regretted telling them to do that since the pair had come home with the deeds to three rather barren isles, a pair of titles each, more money then they could ever spend, a boat or rather a ship that Kushina had promptly named the Nakama. Her reasoning behind that rather strange name was simple, "only family will sail upon it, only comrades are Nakama, family by choice and by blood are the only ones who can call this ship home." When she had declared that she had been caressing the hull of the bright red ship, she had been amused that the ship was made from a red wood that had been given a treatment that brightened the natural hue of the wood.

Of course, Kushina being Kushina, she couldn't resist modifying the ship with seals to help sail it, thanks to those seals it was fireproof, waterproof, lightning proof and could take a beating. Even after those seals had been placed she had grinned at her partner before she had said, " _one day in the future, I'll modify it even more and after that it will never sink!"_

The civilians were torn between horror at the defacing of the monument and delight at how the Hokage Monument didn't seem so lifeless anymore, instead it shone with a light that only the will to protect could produce. What none of the watchers, including Naruto and his team, knew was that Kushina had gone behind her son and made the colors now adorning the Monument permanent for at least three hundred years before she had painted the hickeys onto it. If they tried to get rid of the paint the only thing that would happen would be that the hickeys would wash off but the rest of the color would stay since she had cast a spell that allowed the stone to retain the color no matter what until the stone wore away from time, wind and water.

The next memory flashed up and Kushina watched as her parents snickered over how her son convinced two Jounins to help him prank the ANBU, the Hyuga clan as well as the Inuzuka clan. As James rolled on the ground due to laughter he had gasped out, "first things first, we **have** got to teach that kid how to be an animagus so we can induct him into the Marauders! My Grandson is brilliant!" As James got up from the ground he grinned at the stunned look on his daughters face at how he claimed Naruto as his grandchild even though biologically he wasn't James Potter grandson he was Yoban Uzumaki's. "He is without a doubt my absolute favorite grandchild," he said with a smug smile before he smirked at his husband and stated slyly, "Arashi would be so jealous, Tsunade hasn't given him any grandchildren."

At that Remus shot him a bemused look as Kushina said slowly as if talking to a small slow child, "Daddy, he is your only grandchild at the moment unless Kimihiro has one secreted away somewhere." At that James pouted so the golden eyed pair first glanced at each other with amused glances before they began laughing as they did the scene switched to a new memory.

When the three finally emerged from the pensive Remus and Kushina was still cackling over how James had pouted, after the pair had calmed their laughter James had turned to their daughter and asked, "is there anything else we need to know about? Or can we turn in for the night," he stared down at the pair, two sets of gold eyes glanced up at him while he tapped his foot impatiently. As he stared down at them he was struck by the thought that no matter what his mate and child would always look up at him with matching eyes since Kushina and Midoko would look up at him innocently with their Sharingan eyes activated after they had pulled a prank on him.

Kushina finally sighed before she got up as she said, "it's not that urgent but the two of you should know so you can make an informed decision before the time comes that it's unavoidable…." After a moment of quiet thought she explained her plan to get her and Kisuke back into Konoha, she ended the explanation by saying, "if you answer the call then your body will change back to the body you had in your lives as Yoban and Midoko Uzumaki. Me and Uncle Rodolphus think that those brought back might be able to shift between that form and the form that they held before being called back to life, but we're not sure since his memory of creating the jutsu is a bit fuzzy," she gave them a bemused look before she stated, "he told me that sometimes when he created a jutsu it was as if another hand was guiding his actions so he's not too sure if the fuzziness is due to his reincarnation or if he got help with that particular one."

Remus stared at his daughter with a bland expression before he said, "in other words, I would regain my female form as would Isshin since he is Mito reborn," he blinked a bit before he shrugged, "it might be interesting to regain that form but on the other hand being a woman after over thirty-five years as a man would be a bit difficult…" At the odd mental image of Isshin Kurosaki once again being a petite red haired woman of five feet four inches instead of being over six feet tall with black hair and a beard caused them to goggle before laughing.

Kushina shook her head to get the odd image out of her head before she said, "I don't know if some of our reborn relatives will have a strong enough sense of will power to resist answering a call for help. I know that Uncle Isshin, Rodolphus and Rabastan won't be able to resist the pull of the call nor will Nawaki or Obito, those two have a bit of a hero complex." She gave them a wry smile as she said with a sardonic tone, "I won't deny having one of those myself but I at least try to curb my impulsive behavior unless absolutely necessary, those two don't even bother to do that!"

Remus and James glanced at each other before they sighed before James commented, "we'll think about it but we'll probably try to resist the call since number one: I like who I am now, not to say I didn't like who I was. I just think that the school will be in enough shock when you, Isshin, Rabastan and Rodolphus vanish, we don't need Albus to lose two of his teachers at the same time."

Kushina conceded his point with a nod before she said with a wry smile, "good thing Aunt Lily, Uncle Rus and Uncle Sear aren't reincarnations of any of our previous relatives as far as we know since it would be really awkward if all of you couldn't resist the pull. Grandpa Al would lose five teachers then since Uncle Sear took over that one class that Grandpa Al implemented," at that comment James and Remus started laughing as they pictured the look on Albus' face if Hogwarts was without most of it's teaching staff while their daughters eyes sparkled in mischievous amusement.

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Five days after her conversation with her parents Kushina eagerly awaited her turn to draw a number out of the box so the line up of the Dueling matches could be made. Only sixteen people signed up for the competition so it would take a lot less time then the teachers figured that it would. Among those who signed up was Draco, Ron, Neville and Luna, as she waited she glanced around the room, as she did she idly wondered which one of them that she'd be facing first. She refused to consider that she wouldn't make it past the first match since she had years of battle experience to draw on as well as the cunning that it had taken to prank not only her villages ANBU forces but the Kage's of the other villages.

Two minutes later and the group was asked to call out so they could be written down on the match-up board. First up was Terry Boot verses Tracy Davis while Michael Corner would be facing Draco Malfoy, Colin on the other hand gulped since he would be facing Ginny. Su Li was clearly sharing his opinion since her opponent was Kushina, the red head had a rather vicious grin on her face as she rubbed her hands together eagerly.

Blaise eyed Neville, he knew that the Herbology loving gryffindor had been receiving lessons from his parents on how to duel properly so he didn't know how wary he should be of the formerly clumsy lion. Luna remained serene while Susan wondered if she should go easy on the spacey blond or not, Ron was reading his book while Morag tried to rile him up by insinuating that Ron was a coward. Daphne huffed since she was confidant that she could take on one meek little badger very easily, however anyone who had seen Sakura and her summons could have told her not to underestimate badger or their ferocity.

Three hours later, the first three duels had taken place and their winners were declared, Terry Boot had won his match while Michael lost to the white dragon of Slytherin and Colin's fears proved foreboding since Ginny had won their match. Everyone watched as the match between Kushina and Su Li began, Kushina had decided against going all out until the second to final round of the tournament as much as she wanted to win she didn't want to hurt or maim her fellow students.

Fifteen minutes later, Su Li was enervated and she stared up at Kushina in shock, she would have never ever used those particular five spells together. Kushina had used the Patronus charm along with the avis spell to distract the Ravenclaw from the polishing spell cast on the ground behind her, the red head then cast a rather gentle banishing spell. That spell caused Su Li to stumble backwards and slip on the slick stone floor, as the other girl had laid on the floor dazed Kushina had cast a stunning spell on her.

Another thirty minutes later Neville was declared the winner against Blaise and twenty minutes after that Luna won against Susan, the red haired heiress had been startled at that. She had been unable to predict Luna's moves and thus lost the duel, she watched in amusement as first Ron won his match without even looking up from his book before Hannah won against the Slytherin Ice Queen, Daphne Greengrass with only three moves.

The next days tournament line up would be Terry verses Draco then Ginny verses Kushina, the only female Weasley had groaned, "can I just give up now," before Neville's match against Luna as announced. The fourth match would be Ron against Hannah, depending upon the length of the matches would be if the third set of matches would be held on the same day as the second match or not.

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At noon the next day, Ron won his match by the skin of his teeth, Draco had won his match against Terry and thanks to her smooth win he had to face Kushina in the arena. Neville hadn't been surprised when he lost to Luna and since he was almost one hundred percent certain that his god sibling would win her match, Neville knew that it would only be a matter of which one of the other pair that would be facing her. However, Neville was placing a bet that it would be Luna who would end up facing the red head in the ring and not Ron, he just didn't think that Ron could think outside of the box enough to outpace Luna's way of thinking.

Four hours later, he was proven right when the blond won her match against Ron and Kushina won hers against Draco, the Slytherin took the loss in good nature. He even joked, "I don't think there is much that I can beat her at except maybe chess and even then her thought processes might just flummox me enough that I would lose."

Ron, on the other hand, laughed when he lost to Luna before he said, "I kind of figured I'd lose to either you or Kushina, both of you are too impulsive and prone to following your instincts." It had been decided that Kushina wouldn't duel Luna until noon on the next Saturday, so on Monday Kushina planned to kidnap her brother and god sister in order to give their respective parents the day off from having to worry about them.

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The students in the Great Hall stared after the gleeful red head as she scooped up the two toddlers, first of whom was talking in Parseltongue while the other seemed to be practicing her Daddy's scowl. As she waved at the bemused parents of the two, Kushina said, "I'll be back around noon or at the latest five, it will all depend on if they take their naps or not." With that said she used Shunpo to race to the outskirts of London while the two toddlers giggled in her ears, and after she had settled the eight month old boy into the carrying sling along her front Kushina had the sixteen month old girl hold her hand. Cassiopeia was already able to walk on her own but the red head didn't want the little girl to just run off on her own to explore, the heiress to the Black and Snape families had a curiosity rivaling her godmothers much to Lily's bemusement, Kushina was stopped several times by people who wanted to compliment her on the children.

Many of them were startled when she explained that Teddy was her baby brother, who had been quite the surprise to her parents, and that Cassie was the daughter of her godparents. She joked that she was giving the four adults the day off while practicing for when she had her own child, she couldn't exactly tell them that her son was twelve years old now since she was only seventeen years old and no five year old was going to have a child under normal circumstances.

The House Elves had packed a lunch for the three and Kushina planned to have a picnic in the zoo at one of the designated areas, several workers at the zoo glanced at the teen with a raised eyebrow. They didn't often see a young woman with children under five years old coming to the zoo so seeing a woman under twenty with two children under two years old was a bit of a surprise.

She had Cassie on her left hip and was pointing at the Asiatic lion that was resting in the shade, one of the people near them heard the young girl state firmly, despite not speaking too well she apparently had a very large vocabulary. "Papa's lion, Shadow is larger than that one and Shadow has a larger mane," although the young Black was speaking about her fathers animagus form the people who overheard her assumed, wrongly, that her Papa had a pet lion.

Kushina had merely chuckled before she said fondly to the toddler, "I know he is, sweetheart, but he's also a different breed then this fellow and Asiatic lions are meant to have small manes. It's part of their dimorphism," she paused for a moment to try to explain what she meant to the small girl, "it's like how a tiger has stripes while a leopard has spots and lions have neither, it's simply the way they were born, understand?"

Cassie's brow furrowed as she clearly attempted to process the new information, the people around them that overheard the explanation merely thought that Kushina was silly to try to explain breed differences to a child. As such they were quite shocked when Cassie had nodded before she stated firmly, "it's like how Papa has black eyes like me but Mama has grey eyes!" With that said she blinked her eyes up at the red head before she smiled excitedly and said, "and how you have red hair but your Kisuke's hair is blond!"

Kushina smiled down at her before she said with sparkling gold eyes, "yes that's it exactly, sweetie," she then rubbed Teddy's back as she said to him with a wry smile, "I hope you understood at least part of that, my little bear, because you'll have some very odd memories otherwise…" Teddy merely grinned up at her, showing only a couple of baby teeth, he had a small genjutsu on him to disguise the way his hair changed color with his mood, as he smiled up at his sister his hair shifted to a sunshine yellow while his eyes changed to blue. The three then wandered around the park for a while and stopped at several exhibits which included; the Serval, the oriental small clawed otter and the pygmy hippopotamus.

At noon, she stopped at a small table just along the edge of a grassy exhibit to eat her lunch and feed the two toddlers, thanks to a couple of spells and jutsus everyone who glanced at the three assumed that she had brought the lunches in with her. In the basket were sandwiches for her and Cassie, they had been cut into bite sized portions while Teddy had a bottle of milk along with home made baby food. Among which were carrots, sweet potatoes as well as strawberry banana pudding for dessert, the young witch counted it as a win that he ate at least five bites of the two vegetables as well as ten bites of the pudding before he demanded his bottle. While she was feeding him the milk she let Cassie finish off the pudding, she had Cassie place the used dishes back into the basket before she shrunk it back down to toy-sized and placed it in her purse.

Once she had burped Teddy, Kushina took the pair to the reptile house, Cassie giggled while the older girl began to whisper what the snakes were saying to each other about the human visitors. The eastern diamondback rattlesnake was muttering vulgarities and questioning the intelligence of the human children who couldn't seem to understand that it was venomous since they all wished they could have one as a pet. Cassie had stared at the snake with a raised eyebrow, looking remarkably like her Daddy, Kushina had told her that the snake was complaining like her Daddy did sometimes after one of his students had done something stupid.

The snake tilted it's head to the side in puzzlement when Cassie had declared loudly, shocking the group of teens and parents around them all, "anyone who say that they want to own one of your kind is an imbecilic, foolhardy incompetent! Rattlesnakes are venomous as well as being pit vipers," the toddler then rolled her eyes as she muttered darkly, "ergo they hunt by seeing body heat. Therefore if you try to feed one of them a dead prey it has to have been freshly killed or it will literally bite the hand that is feeding it…"

Kushina had chuckled before she ruffled Cassie's dark hair as she said proudly, "very true, I'm glad that you're paying attention to both me and your Daddy when we go on about snakes even if your Mama prefers to leave the room." She then smiled in bemusement before she quipped in a quite tone, "next thing we know you'll be reading your Daddy's chemistry books."

Cassiopeia blinked up at her with a bland expression on her face before she asked, "what makes you think I haven't already started, 'Shina?"

Kushina smirked before she said in a smug tone, "because you haven't found a way to get your Daddy to let you sit in on his classes!" Cassiopeia pouts because the teen had a point, if she had already begun to read the books then she'd be trying to convince Severus to allow her into the potions lab. She had pestered both of her parents and James to get them to let her sit in on one of the transfiguration lesson, everyone had been surprised when she'd begun to read at the age of 9 months old. To be technical a charm read the book to her, both Sirius and Severus though she just found the sound of the words soothing since it would take on the voice of the person who cast the spell so they would cast it on whatever book she brought them.

It hadn't been until she started to do more then merely babble that they realized how smart she was, Kushina had cackled gleefully before she said, " _you have a genius for a child and you better hope that she doesn't remember a past life or both of you are going to be in big trouble!"_ Thankfully, they didn't have to worry about that for another three years and seven months since she probably wouldn't start her dreams until the age of five, even if Sirius had to slip her the potion until then.

When they passed by the boa exhibit the red haired girl stopped to glance inside she was surprised to find a different species of snake within it. She stopped a zookeeper and asked her, "what happened to the boa that was here around six years ago," the zookeeper was startled by the odd question but answered it.

"It escaped," she said before she shrugged with a puzzled expression, "for some reason or another it was never located after it managed to get outside the building. No one has reported seeing it or anything similar to it in the surrounding area," she then gestured to the snake in the exhibit, "we got this fellow shortly afterwards and he's been here ever since."

Kushina blinked at the information before she nodded and said, "thank you, I had been aware that it escaped but I thought that it had been recaptured by the zoo." As she had spoken she had shifted Teddy absently and listened with half an ear to her baby brother babbling at the now interested poisonous snake. When Teddy gestured clumsily at the snake while he babbled, Kushina had absently nodded and said equally absently, "I agree Teddy, he is a rather handsome fellow but I don't think he he'd be interested in playing with Saki. He's a little too big of a playmate for her," at that comment the zoo keeper glanced at her oddly, especially when she absently added, "besides I'm fairly sure they are completely different species."

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Luna and Kushina's duel was scheduled for four days after Kushina visit to the zoo with the two toddlers, Teddy's babbling in Parseltongue had utterly confused the snakes until Kushina had been able to explain that he just started talking so he didn't know too many words just yet. His rather instant liking of the snakes caused Kushina to think that Teddy would be signing the snake contract as a secondary scroll but his first would be the bears even if she had to blackmail Iruka to let him sign it.

Luna faced the red head from across the dueling platform, unlike her previous duels Kushina wasn't wearing her Reiatsu inhibitors, for this fight she wasn't taking any chances or having any handicaps. As it was she had the feeling that she would need to keep her wits about her to be able to win this match, she was proven right when Luna used a cosmetic charm, a household cleaning charm and a stinging jinx in conjunction with each other. The first two were absorbed by Kushina's shield charm and she dodged the third, in turn the red head fired off five spells in quick succession, four were verbal and the last was non verbal as well as wandless.

Luna dodged the fist two and allowed her shield to absorb the second pair but she was caught off guard when the fifth slipped past her shield and caused her arms to be pulled behind her. The last spell had been a kido spell, the blond pouted as Minerva declared that Kushina was the winner of the match.

When asked as to which one of the teachers she wished to duel, Kushina had tilted her head to the side as she murmured, "well, I can duel Dad or Papa wherever I ask, same with Uncle Rus, Uncle Sear and Aunt Lily. So I think I'd like to duel Grandpa Al," she ended with a grin, a few of the parents who came to watch the duels goggled at both her dialogue and who she referred to five of the teachers, Sirius had accepted the job offer that Albus gave him just the last summer, as well as the headmaster.

Albus, on the other hand, merely chuckled at the way her eyes had twinkled like gold stars before he said with a smile, "I'll be happy to duel you, my dear, but at another time. Perhaps on the twenty-second," he said as he glanced down at the young woman, he still sometimes had trouble believing that she was in charge of the Soul Kings personal guard or that she in fact was older than he was if you counted the years she remembered living and not just her physical age.

She grinned impishly up at him as she said slyly, "that sounds like a plan, Grandpa Al!" After a moment she grew thoughtful before she absently asked, "hey, Grandpa, is it alright if I leave Hogwarts on the twenty-third and twenty-fourth? I need to check on something and I completely forgot to do it on the tenth."

Amelia raised an eyebrow at that but thanks to the copy of the Hogwart's charter given to the ministry she knew that as long as she asked permission a week before hand then Kushina, as the Head of an ancient house and a married woman, would be excused from any classes she had. Thus unlike some of the parents/guardians, she wasn't surprised when Albus hummed before he said, "since you don't have any classes to attend on either of those days… Permission granted," his blue eyes danced as he quipped, "just try to be back before your first class on Tuesday!" With that comment ringing in her ears Kushina walked out of the Room of Requirement giggling.

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Three days after Kushina's duel with Luna, Hagrid was leading the third years to a clearing where he could show them a particular animal, unknown to the half-giant and the children they were being followed by a group of centaurs that were curious about the two legged foals of the humans. As the third years listened to Hagrid expound upon the traits and habits of the small pixies darting around the clearing, one of them noticed a dark spot in the sky and raised her hand. "Yes, miss McKinnon," Hagrid asked when he spotted her raised hand.

"What's that," she asked as she pointed up at the sky, both Hagrid and the centaurs glanced upward at the question.

Hagrid frowned before he said while urging the children to rise and start moving back to the safety of Hogwarts, "I don't rightly know but I think I better tell the other teachers about it…"

However, three creatures with skull masks over their faces attacked, or rather prevented the group from continuing toward the castle, a few of the girls gave shrill screams at that. Firenze heard the screams, he alerted both Kushina and Charlie to them, unknown to the three now racing to the sound, Nel was even closer than they were and was using the Hollow version of Shunpo to get there faster. They arrived on the scene just in time to see Nel appear with a snarl on her normally sweet features and Firenze stared at her in shock when she said, "oh no you don't, Declare Gamuza!" With that she was surrounded by an intense light and when she reappeared to everyone's sight the palomino centaur was even further surprised.

She now had a helmet that appeared to look like a rams skull along with white armor on her shoulders, elbows and hands, the armor that covered her hands resembled hooves. Gripped in her right hand was a double lance, but what shocked everyone except those who already knew, her lower body had changed because below her waist was the body of a large tan colored animal. Kushina would later inform them that it was an Ibex, her tail was jet black and it swished as she stomped her left rear hoof.

The three creatures halted at the sight of her for a brief moment before they continued to advance upon the children, her eyes flashed angrily before she threw the lance, as it flew through the air it began to rotate and when it hit the creatures mask the white object shattered. Much to the surprise of most of the watchers the creature shrieked and vanished from sight by dissolving, with a flick of her wrist the lance was once again in Nel's grip. She then pointed it at the remaining pair as she stated in a growling tone, unintentionally causing Firenze to shiver from the menace contained in it, " **I said, don't even think about it,** " one of the two creatures seemed to be thinking twice about it's decision to pursue the children because it fled to the black spot in the sky.

As it fled Nel had opened her mouth, but instead of yelling at it like most of them thought she would, a ball of light formed in her mouth and she seemed to spit it out at the creature. The ball of light shot through the air at the creature with great speed and the creature looked back just as the ball reached it, the ball shattered it's mask causing it to do the same thing as the previous creature. Nel then stared at the only remaining creature as if daring it to try something, one of the tips of her lances was pointing toward the sky while the other pointed at the ground.

The creature seemed to come to a decision since it formed a ball of light and fired it at the teal haired woman/centaur, Firenze stepped forward without thinking even though he knew that he wouldn't be able to help her. To his surprise Nel merely smirked up at the creature while Kushina had shaken her head as she muttered, "that was a very big mistake, Hollowbreath!"

Their confusion at her words was cleared up when instead of dodging or blocking the attack Nel had opened her mouth and appeared to swallow it, however she reopened her mouth to fire it back at the creature. The ball was twice the previous size as well as twice as fast since before any of them could blink it slammed into its mask and shattered it, like the previous two creatures it shrieked before it vanished via disintegrating into nothingness. Nel flexed her hand that was holding the double lance absently before it vanished and her lower half changed back to human, she was now clad in a green skirt and top while a sword was held in a diagonal sheath across her back. She still had a rams skull on her head but it was only half the size of the previous skull, she tilted her head to the side as if listening to something, a moment later she walked over to a bush and shifted it to the side to reveal a small girl with a chain hanging from her chest.

The little girl glanced up and slowly ceased her soft crying at Nel's soft smile as well as how she said, "it's alright now, you can stop hiding, they aren't here to hurt you."

She sniffled lightly as she wiped her tears away before she said in a small voice, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lead them to a place with people, I really tried to stay away since they always hurt other people. Thank you for stopping them," as she had spoken she had stared up at Nel gratefully. However, before Nel could offer to send her to a place that was safe the young spirit cried out, "behind you!"

Nel felt a Hollow behind her and without blinking she unsheathed her sword before she slashed through the hollows mask, as it disintegrated behind her with a shriek Nel asked cheerfully, "would you like to go to a safer place? A place without monsters, where you won't have to run for your life," she smiled down at her before she said gently, "some of my friends live there so I know you'll be safe." Once the little girl had agreed to the soul burial Nel tapped her lightly on the forehead with her sword and the little girl slowly faded from sight, as she did Nel had winked at her as she said, "tell them Nel sent you!"

Nel had then rolled her neck and shoulders causing a series of cracks to ring out loudly before she sighed, as she did her sword vanished along with it's harness and her outfit returned to her previous outfit of pants with a tee-shirt. She then glanced at Firenze before she asked cheerfully, "so have you thought about it?" At his slightly baffled look she clarified, "would you like to go on a run with me later? I haven't had a real chance to stretch my legs since I was put on probation, well if you want to be technical it was even long since until Ichigo beat up Aizen, I had amnesia and forgot I could do that."

Unknown to the exiled centaur he received a mix of jealous and proud looks from the group of centaurs, jealous looks from the other young male centaurs and proud glances from the elders. "I would love to go on a run with you, Nel," Firenze finally managed to answer hesitantly and made a mental note to inform her on the run about what centaurs considered courtship behavior. As rare as female centaurs were it was the female who initiated the courtship not the male, if a female was interested she would offer things to the male such as favored foods, an offer to groom each other, asking the male to stargaze with her or to go on a run. Nel had done all of those thing with him but he ignored it because he believed her to be human and uninterested in being involved with him beyond a close friendship.

Bane was growling slightly at how the banished palomino seemed to be getting a female centaur, sine she wasn't really a centaur but none of the females had shown any interest in either him or any of the group that had helped him hurt Firenze as he tried to leave the forest. Unknown to the angry male, the females merely considered him and his group to be unfitting to father their children or even lead a herd, unlike Firenze who, although be disobeyed the herds laws, was completely focused on the safety of the foals and mares of the human herd. A few of the female centaurs were glaring at Nel in jealous frustration since many of them considered the disgraced stallion a potential mate despite his banished state so for Nel to have his blatant interest, for a male centaur, was grating to their prides.

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At the same time Nel was fighting the first three hollows, Shuhei was practicing with Kazeshini when he paused in the middle of a kata with his head tilted to the side as if he was listening to something only he could hear. His grey eyes narrowed before he murmured softly, "okay, if you think I should, Kazeshini," he then took a deep breath with the shafts of the two scythes crossed before he snarled out, "BANKAI!" The Soutaicho's eyes widened in shock, he had been watching the practice along with the captains of squads three, five, eight, eleven and twelve. All of them were startled since they had never seen a person suddenly attempt to perform Bankai out of the blue simply on the recommendation of the spirit of their Zanpakuto.

As they stared in shock as the weapon changed, the chain disconnected from one of the scythes and it transformed into a three bladed scythe, all three blades were on the same side of the pole one right below the other starting at the very top of the pole. The chain had a small segment disconnect from the rest of it and thin into a long loop that slipped around Shuhei's neck. A pendant seemed to hang from the chain while the other scythe broke in half and changed into a pair of armlets that clasped themselves around the young Shinigami's upper arms. When the haze of dust cleared from around the ninth divisions lieutenant the group could see that he indeed had a pendant around his neck, the shape of the pendant was also etched on the two armlets along with two other symbols, the symbol was a triangle inside of a circle and the two shapes were bisected by a line. The other two symbols on the armlets was the numbers tattooed on his cheek and his captains abdomen while the other was a stylized leaf sitting on a ripple of water.

The blades of the scythe were blood red in coloration and only Kensei saw a faint figure overlay his normally serious lieutenant, it was a silver haired woman with dancing blue eyes. His eyebrows shot up though when the faint image raised her hand and with a smirk on her face, traced Shuhei's tattoo on her own cheek before she vanished from his sight. "Hello, my silver hawk," the Visored murmured under his breath as he stared down at his lover while the dark haired man was admiring the weapon in his hands with a fond smile.

As he did that Kazeshini manifested behind his master and draped himself along Shuhei's back as he said with a cheerfully tone, "I like this form, a lot!"

Shuhei rolled his eyes at that before he playfully shoved the zanpakuto spirit away as he had retorted lightly, "but of course you do!" At that remark the spirit cackled with laughter as he had glanced up at Kensei to see the older man had hid his smile behind his hand. The grey eyed shinigami glanced upward at his captain and caught sight of the older man's dancing eyes of his lover, he smiled at that before he turned to Kazeshini to smack him upside the head as he berated him for his rudeness. As he did the other shinigami had stared down at the two in shock over the ease that Shuhei was now showing around his zanpakuto's spirit since he had always been uneasy about his weapon for years.

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The day that all of Hogwarts had been waiting in anticipation for had finally arrived and the Room of Requirement was full of students, teachers and parents. All of them were eager to see the duel between Albus Dumbledore, defeater of the Dark Lord Grinwald and Kushina Urahara nee Potter-Lupin, Girl-Who-Lived, Defeater of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Name A.K.A. Voldemort. Unlike her rather one sided duel with Voldy at the end of her fourth year, the red head bowed deeply to her opponent and Albus did the same for her, their actions spoke loudly of the respect they held for one another. Many of the parents, at least those who hadn't believed their children's tales about how the Headmaster valued the teens opinion, were taken aback by the blatant show of courtesy between them.

The two started off with light hexes and jinxes, after several long discussions about the upcoming duel the pair had decided against going all out against one another. Even if that meant that they might lose the duel, due to either the power differences between each other or due to a lucky shot, the pair stepped up the duel a notch or two after about ten minutes of exchanging spells.

Kushina conjured up a pack of hyenas and set them on the Headmaster, he immediately cast Duro on the animals before using expulso on the now stone beasts causing them to shatter into thousands of pieces. The old man then sent a Diffindo closely followed by a blasting hex at her, she dodged the second and let her Protogo absorb the first before she retaliated. Her first spell was a silencing charm combined with a binding charm, his shield had taken the second blow and he dodged the first, the duel had continued in much the same fashion until a disarming curse was sent at Albus by Kushina right as he cast the Stunning spell on her.

Both spells hit their marks, however, Kushina's hit it's mark first and she caught Albus' wand with an expression of shock on her face shortly before his hit her. As the spell was lifted she overheard Albus arguing with the referee to the match over the verdict of the match. "It should be declared a draw for both of us and not as a win for myself," the venerable old wizard said hotly with his blue eyes burning with an icy fire.

"Albus, you stunned her to put it quite simply by the definitions of the dueling society, Kushina lost," Minerva stated in a logical tone.

However, everyone, that is everyone except Kushina, was floored when Albus said in a no nonsense tone, "Minerva, Kushina just managed something that no one has done since before I defeated Gellert and she knew it. If she hadn't of been so shocked at having managed it then my spell would have never hit her because she would have been able to dodge the spell." He stared at his deputy with his lips pressed so tightly against one another that they were thin lines before he stated, "declaring the outcome of this match to be anything other than a draw would be an insult to not only myself but Kushina as well." With that said the Headmaster gently led the still shocked seventh year to his office, once there he urged her to sit down before he plied her with tea.

When she tried to hand him back his wand, he shook his head in a gentle refusal as he said softly, "by disarming me, you have won it's loyalty, I'm afraid that it now considers only you it's master now. Just like it did when I won it from Gellert in our duel, it will refuse to obey me from now on," at that declaration her eyes widened in shock as she stared at him.

She barely kept from cursing aloud when she found the faint but familiar symbol of the deathly hollows hidden within the grain of the wood, just as the stone had it visible within itself and the cloak had it stitched into the lining, which could only be detectable to touch not sight. Finally she took a deep breath before she said, "Albus, please hold onto the other end of the wand," as she had spoken she had flipped the wand over so the tip of the wand was facing her and the hilt was pointed to Albus. Although puzzled by her request he did as she bade and once he was holding onto the wand she glared down at it before she stated firmly, "I am your master now and as such you will obey my orders. I order you to obey Albus Dumbledore's commands, unless they would cause me harm, until the natural end of his life. Then and only then will I wield you as my own," her eyes flashed briefly in a dangerous fashion that caused the portrait of the previous heads to be very glad they were dead before she snarled, "if you do anything to hasten his death, even if it is not acting to prevent it, then I will never lay another hand upon you, understand?"

Albus stared in shock when the wand had pulsed in a faintly sullen but agreeable way, once it had Kushina had let go of the wand and said as she walked out of his office, "that should be the end of that. Simply leave the wand to me in your will in the event of your death and no one will question a thing about why it is in my possession afterward." With that said she closed the door, Albus stared after her absently before he sat down and began working on the paperwork he'd been neglecting/avoiding lately in favor of the Dueling Tournament, as he did he used the wand to light the fire. Absently he noted that it worked as well as it ever had for him when he was it's true master and guessed that it did not want to risk never having it's true mistress never laying a hand upon it again.


	20. Chapter Nineteen: Of Admonishments, Spars and R.S.T.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Due to a sudden promotion I won't be able to update as fast as I have before, each update will probably be every other week since I'll be working ten hour shifts eight days in a row before I get six days off. :sighs: Sorry folks, I'll try to update with at least two chapters but I make no promises. This baby will have to do you all until the...11th of September...okay that will be an odd anniversary present but I'll try to make it! - Strifes_Lady 
> 
> P.S. due to a request and realization of my own I'll be taking the lemons out of the fics, only the chapters on Archive of Our Own will keep them.

 

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 **Chapter Nineteen:** _Of Admonishments, Spars and R.S.T._

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After she had left Albus' office, the red haired witch made her way outside of the school, she spotted Nel in her resurreccion form standing alongside a familiar palomino Centaur stallion. She waved goodbye to them both before she slashed open a Senkaimon to the palace of Heaven, several of her subordinates took one look at her face and fled from her line of sight. Many of them had never seen her beyond annoyed and entering the furious stage of her temper, not even the bravest of Konoha's enemies took her on when the leash on her temper slipped that far.

With a sharp gesture to the five guards within the throne room and Kushina was left alone with the King, he looked at her with curiosity etched onto his face. She took a deep breath and bellowed out as her eyes flashed to blood red with black markings that rather resembled the dragon mon, " **you could have warned me that I was your second choice for kingship! But no, I had to win the loyalty of the three Deathly Hollows without you mentioning a single word about that little fact! I never wanted to be the King!"**

He chuckled before he pointed out softly, "neither did I but here I am," his gaze was warm as he smiled down at her while he said, "the best rulers are those who don't want the position or the job. They are the best because they don't have such grand plans in place for their time on the throne, that's why Aizen lost his place as a potential heir since he wanted it too much where as you don't have any real plans at all."

At her disgruntled expression he had laughed before he said teasingly, "don't look so put out, my dear, it will be a great many years before I pass the throne to you."

She sighed in resignation before she nodded and said softly, "yes, Sire, as you will it," she then gave him a bow before she left the room, as she did she ignored the shocked looks sent her way by the rest of the guard. At least she got looks from all of those that overheard her yelling at the King about her new position as the heir to the throne. Since she was already there, Kushina decided to warn Obito and Nawaki about how Naruto might summon them as well so they could make a decision about whether or not to answer the call. When she had also casually mentioned that anyone holding onto a summoned person could be dragged along and placed in the same resurrection coffin, provided that they had a strong attachment to a living member of the family.

Both Dan and Rin got contemplating looks on their faces at that remark, neither of them were blood related to Naruto, but Dan did love Tsunade who was directly related to Naruto's mother while Rin had a great deal of attachment to Naruto as well as a few members of the Uchiha clan. Dan certainly wouldn't be against seeing Tsunade, much less hold, kiss and speak with her again, while Rin simply refused to allow Obito to leave her again nor would she be opposed to seeing her teammate, Kakashi either. Kushina briefly contemplated detouring to the ninth division to warn Shuhei and Kensei about the call they might feel but decided against it since neither man gave indications that they remembered and thus wouldn't recognize the tug on their souls as a call for help from a clan member. Besides only Kensei would feel it since he was the only one related to Naruto anyway, Shuhei was the reincarnation of his great aunt by marriage so he wouldn't feel the tug.

Instead she stopped in on Kukaku and Ganju, she found the pair dining with a fourth division member, the small man had attempted to leave when she entered the room but he was stopped by both of the siblings. Kukaku glanced up at her before she asked as she puffed on her pipe, "what brings you by my place, Kushina?"

"Oh, not much, 'Kaku-san," she said nonchalantly as she gracefully folded herself into a kneeling position with ease, despite her not wearing either a Kimono or closefitting robes it was obvious that the red head had a lot of practice at kneeling while wearing one. "I just got done speaking with the King about something and decided to drop by to see if you or Ganju wanted me to pass along any letters to Sirius," she stated as she poured herself a cup of Sake.

With that statement Ganju grinned before he raced out of the room to go grab his letter, Kukaku raised an eyebrow at that before she stated blandly, "well I certainly don't but apparently Ganju does." Hanataro stared after the youngest Shiba sibling with a bemused expression and when Ganju returned he was holding a bundle of letters that he promptly handed to Kushina.

She placed the bundle inside of one of the many seals sewn into her clothes before she finished off her cup of Sake, she then rose to her feet as she said, "I'm going to go visit Ichigo to see if he needs me to pick him up anything from Diagon Alley.

The three watched her leave before returning to their meal, Kushina made her way to the gates of the Seireitei, as she walked through the Rukongai she received nods and calls of greeting from the inhabitants. Without a word, Jidanbo opened the gate to let her in through it, she was welcomed by a certain silver haired captain with a sly smile, "hello, Kushina-San. Here to visit your cousin or husband," Gin asked as he walked beside her toward the larger numbered divisions of the Seireitei.

"Ichigo, of course," she stated with a smirk at him before she winked and said slyly, "but I'll probably stop by to see my Kisuke. At that Gin laughed and let her continue on her way without accompanying her, only a new person to the squads wouldn't recognize her as the head of the Soul Kings guard.

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Three hours later the red haired woman left the Kuchiki Estate with a smug smirk, Ichigo's list of items for her to get and several letters for Rukia from both her brother as well as Ichigo. Little Masaki took not only after her grandmother but Kushina highly suspected that the little girl might just be the reincarnation of Masaki that she had heard about from family stories. In either case Kushina knew that if their first born was declared clan heir the Kuchiki Clan council would be in the a very rough and strange patch.

Kushina headed to the twelfth division to see her husband, she leaned against a pillar and watched as her husband went through the forms of a kata, as she did a small smile curved her lips. As she watched him, Kushina began humming lightly before she sang just as softly with a sparkle in her eyes, " _sweet dreams are made of this,_

_Who am I to disagree?_

_I travel the world_

_And the seven seas,_

_Everybody is looking for something._

_Some of them want to use you._

_Some of them want to be used by you._

_Some of them want to abuse you._

_Some of them want to be abused._

_Who am I to disagree?_

_I travel the world_

_And the seven seas,_

_Everybody is looking for something._

_Hold your head up_

_Keep your head up, movin' on_

_Hold your head up, movin' on_

_Keep your head up, movin' on_

_Hold your head up_

_Keep your head up, movin' on_

_Hold your head up, movin' on_

_Keep your head up, movin' on_

_Some of them want to use you._

_Some of them want to be used by you._

_Some of them want to abuse you._

_Some of them want to be abused._

_Who am I to disagree?_

_I travel the world_

_And the seven seas,_

_Everybody is looking for something._

_Who am I to disagree?_

_I travel the world_

_And the seven seas,_

_Everybody is looking for something._

_Who am I to disagree?_

_I travel the world_

_And the seven seas,_

_Everybody is looking for something._

_Who am I to disagree?_

_I travel the world_

_And the seven seas,_

_Everybody is looking for something."_

Kisuke laughed when he heard her sing along with how she was nodding her head to the unheard beat, she had certain songs that were her favorites and this one was merely one of that many that she knew by heart. Once she was through with the song, the blond had pulled her into an embrace and kissed her softly before he murmured in her ear, "hello, love, what brings you by?"

She breathed in his scent, she smiled and wondered just how he could always have the scent of cordite, a hint of honeysuckle and the scent of the sky before rain, she nuzzled his jaw as she murmured, "just checking up on everyone and getting messages to be passed on. Ichigo gave me a rather extensive list of things to pick up the next time I either go to Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley." She then gave him a sly smile as she asked, "got any requests for me, 'Suke-Love," her gold eyes glinted with a familiar light as she stared up into his blue-grey eyes.

He had his hands wrapped around he waist and his thumbs brushed against her lower stomach as he said with a soft loving smile, "some more potions ingredients wouldn't go amiss." A slightly larger smile crept across his ace as he murmured in her ear, "nor would some wizard candy."

She huffed a laugh before she said with a grin and sparkling eyes, "you and that sweet tooth of yours."

His subordinates glanced out and saw their captain nuzzle his wife before he said, "you still love me despite my sweet tooth, so what does that say about you," he had pulled back to smirk down at her when he said that.

She rolled her eyes at that before she said, "it says that I love you despite or perhaps because of all of your faults and habits," he was the only one who heard the silent comment of ' _just like I love Sakumo.'_ Instead of mentioning their missing lover, Kushina only smirked up at him as she snarked back, "besides, you indulge my love of a good fight, my rather extreme pranking habit. And on occasion you indulge my own love of certain foods even if Ramen isn't your favorite food you still make it for me when I want it but don't want to cook it or go out to buy it."

He conceded her point with a nod and a small smile before he led her into the building then to his office, as they walked through the halls she was bemused at how her husband was given odd looks by the lower ranked officers and unranked officers of his division. He opened the door to his office with a flourish before he gestured for her to precede him into it, she did as he bade with a faintly bemused smile, he entered behind her and searched his desk for a blank scroll to scrawl his list down onto.

He found one a few moments later, he made a pleased noise as he triumphantly held up a scroll and as she watched he began to write down his list in his usually elegant scrawl. Once he was finished he handed at over to her so she would read it over, which she promptly did as he put away his ink and brushes. _**'Quite the list that your mate has there, my Lady**_ ,'Thanatos murmured softly in her mind and she absently agreed with the Zanpakuto spirit who murmured back, _**'I mean, there has to be over twenty items on his list alone.'**_

 _ **'Thirty-one, to be precise, Thanatos,'**_ she absently replied to him as she finished counting, she then gave the startled spirit an inner smirk as she retorted, _**'and that's not even counting things he wants more that one of!'**_

At that soft remark both spirits bemoan the time that it would take to complete the shopping for both Ichigo and Kisuke's lists, after she had looked the list over she gave her husband a soft smile. She then said lightly as she rolled it up and placed it in a seal, "alright but it might take a week or two before I can get these to you. Is that alright, Kisuke," she had tilted her head to the side as she inquired that of the blond haired man.

He waved his hands absently as he said, "that's fine, I still have most of the ingredients I just wanted to make sure I didn't run out of it when I truly need them." He then tilted his own head to the side as he asked with a smile, "is there anything else you need from me, love, or can I steal you for a few hours," as he had asked that his blue-grey eyes had darkened to the same color as a stormy sky.

She rose up and sauntered over to him with a smirk before she straddled his hips as she said softly, "well," she paused briefly to press a light kiss to his lips before he continued by saying, "I did need to remind you about the Death Eater trials that will be held in six days. But other than that you can consider me you to do with as you please for the rest of the day, since I really don't have anything at all to do."

At that he smirked up at her and purred softly, "good," he then tightened his grip on her waist before he used shunpo to cause then to reappear in the small compound that he had been given by the Gotei thirteen when he was exonerated of his crimes. He then scooped her up, ignoring her startled yelp as he did so, to carry her inside of the modest house. He could have asked for far more and received it but he rather preferred a house not meant for over twenty people. Instead he had asked for a house that could fit ten to fifteen people comfortable, his reason was simple, _"one day we might have children and I would rather that they needn't share a room unless they want to."_

Once they had made it to the bedroom, Kisuke tossed her, gently, onto the bed and with a great deal of precision he landed her right square in the center of the bed. She rose up on her elbows to cock an eyebrow at him, her questioning look swiftly vanished when she caught sight of him stripping down. His Haori was thrown over the back of a chair while his Shihakusho was dropped to the floor without a care in the world, exposing his lightly scared chest to her gaze, he then undid his Hakama and let them fall to the ground as well. She bit back her laugh when she spotted the decorated boxers that he was wearing in place of the usual undergarments and although she kept back the sound of her laughter she could hide how her amusement made her eyes sparkle. He huffed before he hooked his thumbs under the waistband and muttered as he shoved them down over his erection, "it's not like I thought anyone would be seeing them except me this morning…"

At that remark the laughter she had been holding back slipped loose, she was still laughing when he pounced on her. However, her laughter got choked off into a moan when he scraped her teeth along her jugular and she arched into his touch as he ran his hands down along her sides then under her shirt to palm her breasts. With the ease of long practice he removed her shirt, it was her usual backless and sleeveless shirt so he didn't need to remove her bra or breast wraps in order to do what he did next.

He continued to gently knead the soft but firm mounds as he licked and nipped his way down her neck, as he did he ran calloused thumbs across her erect nipples. She gave a soft moan at that but his next action made her keen loudly, he had scraped his stubble lightly across both breasts before he used his teeth to nip at and pull a nipple into his mouth. He soothed the sting of the scrapes by laving his tongue across the now bright red marks, as he did his hands were busy undoing and removing her pants.

Unconsciously she arched her hips as he pulled her pants down, as tight as her pants were her underwear come off with them, once they were around her calves and ankles, she kicked them off of her legs then off the bed. Once they were off of the bed Kisuke settled back between her legs to continue where he left off, as he suckled at one breast his hand kneaded at the other flicking and pinching the nipple with fingers. After several minutes of this she used the tight grip she had on his hair to pull him away and up her body so she could kiss him, silently she thanked the gods that a: she was a witch and that there were spells to heal minor scratches, B: she still had immense chakra reserves so even if the spells couldn't fix them a healing jutsu could and C: everyone at Hogwarts knew that she was married so she didn't have to heal herself if she didn't want to.

As he kissed her, one of Kisuke's hands crept between their bodies to rub at her clit, causing her to arch suddenly and keen a moan into the kiss, he pulled back to smirk down at her. As she attempted to glare up at him, he pinched the nerve rich nub causing another keen to exit her mouth and hips to buck wildly as her hands clutched at his shoulders. He then licked, nipped and kissed his way down her abdomen until her thighs were draped over his shoulders and he scraped his jaw along her left inner thigh causing her to shudder.

She propped herself up on her right elbows and ran her left hand through his blond hair, his gaze flicked up and locked onto hers as he deliberately scraped his stubble against her clit. A short scream exited her mouth as she came, her fluids flowed down her thighs and he lapped them with a smug smirk, she panted to catch her breath. As she did he had spread her lips apart and ran his tongue from the bottom of her slit up, when he reached her clit she captured it in her mouth and sucked firmly on it.

He kept up the pattern of bring her to a screaming climax then lapping up the resulting wetness before doing it all over again until she had come to an orgasm five times and was weakly tugging at his hair to get him to stop for a moment so she could rest. As he was smirking smugly down at her, she suddenly smirked back and his eyes widened in shock when she flipped them over, as he gripped the sheets out of instinct she slammed his cock in her to the hilt. He bucked under the sudden sensation of his cock being gripped by a tight wet heat.

She clamped her muscles down on him as she slowly drew up off of his shaft was inside her, she relaxed her muscles and dropped back down onto him. She kept the steady pace as he cursed, a slow draw under her grip while her legs were clamped down on his hips preventing them from bucking too much under her. Only one other person had ever seen the same wicked glint that was currently in her eyes, neither man had known whether to throw himself at her non existent mercy and beg her never to stop to run as far as they could when she had that look in her eyes.

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The next morning at the Captains meeting all of the attending Captains/Lieutenants raised an eyebrow when Kisuke stumbled in with a grin on his face and a limp to his step. Retsu raised an eyebrow in askance before Gin said in a sly tone, "I seem to remember that a certain red haired Headguard dropped by the Seireitei yesterday. Did your wife stop by to see you, Kisuke," he grinned at the way the blonds grin widened even more causing him to look a little silly.

However, what shocked the group was how he muttered to himself, "I really do love it when she get into that particular mood," at the same time he had said that he waved away a concerned look thrown his way from Kensei. The sleeve had fallen down to reveal a wrist that had a wide bruise on it completely encircling it, the blond had refused to allow Kushina to heal the bruises he had gained during the course of their lovemaking. In his words, _"they'll give me something to help me remember while you're in school, I'll let you heal them the next time you drop by unless they're already healed."_

Their shocked glances turned to Kensei when he muttered under his breath, "ah, she was in one of her possessive mood, huh?" At the blonds absent minded nod and pleased grin, he huffed a laugh before he muttered, "it's always amusing when she gets all possessive and territorial over you, when it's plain as day that you're very much taken by her."

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As Kisuke stumbled into the Captain's meeting, Lee was sparring with Gaara, the first time that Lee had shown up out the blue and challenged the younger boy to a spar in the middle of the village everyone around them had gaped in shock. Their jaws dropped even further when all Gaara had said in response to the random challenge was, "sure, as long as I'm not late for dinner, Mother would be disappointed if I am." The civilians still weren't used to the spandex wearing teen suddenly appearing to either challenge Gaara to a spar or to drag him off for some random event.

The first time Gai and Kakashi had witnessed such an event, Gai had beamed with pride as he loudly declared his joy at how his beloved student had found such a worthy rival. Kakashi on the other hand was amused by, "well isn't he a chip off the old block, not only does he dress like you, Gai, but he also challenges people like you do." After he finished speaking the silver haired Jounin clapped the other man on the shoulder before he left the area with his nose in his favorite book.

However, that was neither here nor there, the pair had chosen an out of the way training ground to hold their daily spars in there would be less chance they'd accidentally hurt someone with one of their moves. Lee flipped over a wave of sand and slammed his left foot against the sand shield that flowed into place in a reverse roundhouse kick, he then leapt away before the wall of sand could latch onto him.

After the first ten times they'd sparred together the rest of the Shinobi and the civilians lost interest in watching them spar with each other, on occasion the pair would switch from a serious spar into a playful wrestling match. The first time that a spar had done that Gaara had been startled but had gone along since until team Seven had come to Suna few people willingly touched him. A fact that had later amused his siblings, teacher, father and Sasuke since he had come home with his hair in a mess and mud on his clothes, it had begun raining halfway through the spar. Actually that's what started the wrestling match, Lee had slipped in mid move and crashed into Gaara which in turn caused them to crash into the mud.

The ground was still muddy from the rain that happened the day before so when Lee attempted to land near Gaara the ground caused him to slip and hit Gaara. The pair fell down with Lee on top of Gaara and when Lee attempted to get up off of him, his hands slipped causing him to crash back down onto the startled red head. When he had fallen down the second time he had somewhat caught himself but his lips still ended up pressed against Gaara's, both of their eyes widened in shock and they pulled apart to stare at each other.

Gaara blinked up at the startled brunette before he shocked the teen even further by gripping him behind the neck and pulled him back down for another kiss, the taijutsu user made a startled sound into the kiss. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, thanks to his previous acute insomnia Gaara had way too much knowledge of adult activities, such as French kissing, which he promptly decided to try out with Lee.

Several hours passed just by them kissing and eventually they laid side by side on the grass, Lee was absently running his fingers through the surprisingly soft red hair of the head resting against his left should when Gaara abruptly asked, "does this mean we're dating now?" Lee spluttered incoherently at that and the red head looked up at the leaf nin in an innocent fashion but both of his siblings would have noticed the slightly mischievous glint to his green eyes.

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At the same time that Lee was spluttering and trying to answer Gaara's oddball question, Akasuka was watching his eldest son slowly teaching Hinata how to use a puppet, Suna style. Temari had vanished again off to wherever it was that she had been going lately, out of the corner of his eye Akasuka noticed Sasuke doing exercises to improve his flexibility, or rather hers at the moment. The Uchiha had come down to breakfast in his Oiroke no jutsu form, causing Akasuka to become slightly speechless since he had gotten used to Sasuke's male form being the one that he saw more often. Thankfully, he tended to be slightly out of it during the mornings until he had his first cup of coffee and some food in him before he was somewhat coherent so no one really noticed his reaction to the dark haired teen.

Sakura was sparring against Naruto while Kakashi was sitting leaning against a tree, a pug was sleeping on it's back on his right thigh he had his left hand on it's stomach to keep it steady so it didn't fall off. At his left elbow was a small tan dog with brown ears and circles around it's eyes, it was wearing a vest and had a forehead protector around it's neck. It was using it's back right paw scratching at it's cheek while a white dog with a brown patch of fur resembling a Mohawk rested it's head on Kakashi's left knee while staring up at Kakashi who was once again reading one of his usual orange books. Although none of his kids understood why he like the books so much they let it slid since it was as much a part of Kakashi's image as his mask and without them he just wouldn't be Kakashi.

Especially once he explained something to the three about the books, the adults who overheard the explanation stopped razzing or complaining about them as well. Kakashi had explained that his sensei's wife as well as his father's mission partner read them all the time and that by reading them himself allowed the silver haired Jounin to remember the happier times instead of dwelling in the world of what if's. Iruka's yes had widened when Kakashi had stated absently after he said that, "it's the same way with my deceased teammates and my father I suppose. 'Bito was always late and came up with the most outlandish and ridiculous excuses as to why he was late, Rin would sometime pretend not to hear someone speaking just to jerk their chains. My father would spend at least one hour a day talking to the memorial stone, he told me that it calmed him as well as the fact that he believed that a part of their souls must still look after their loved ones so he would do his best to catch them up on the news of the village when he could."

More than one person passed the information on to others and quite a few people stopped trying to get the porn obsessed man to change, more than one of them thought that Kakashi was still somewhat in mourning over the deaths of his sensei as well as his Sensei's wife, his teammates, his Father and his Father's partner due to how much time he spent talking to the Memorial stone. However, how they knew that talking to the stone was a habit that he had picked up from his own Father they all relaxed about it, in fact it had been Kakashi who had noticed an addition to the memorial stone about a week after someone had improved upon the Hokage Monument.

Now underneath Kushina name was her partners name along with his date of birth and the date of the mission whose failure caused him to commit suicide, an ANBU came forward and stated that she had seen another ANBU near the stone but hadn't thought anything of it at the time. She had added that she'd seen the other ANBU hide a scroll near the memorial, truth be told the other ANBU had dug a hole and put the scroll into it. When questioned on the identity of the mask of the person who hid the scroll everyone who was aware of who held that mask almost had a collective heart attack, the mask hadn't been of a dragon but that of a bird, a raven to be specific. Much like the ANBU identity of Ryuu, the ANBU identity of Raven was retired, permanently, in fact it was for the same reasons, both had died in the line of duty to their village and out of respect for the pair.

Everyone who had heard about the incident wanted the scroll that had been left behind read aloud, while they were all arguing about who would read the note, Camilla took the option and the letter out of their hands by reading it aloud, _**"Dear whomsoever is reading this scroll,**_

_**My name is Shisui Uchiha and my dearly beloved Aunt/Cousin, Kushina had wished that her partner's name be added to this memorial since it was the actions of this village that caused his suicide. Therefore to appease my beloved Aunt/Cousins outrage over the dismissal of her final wishes and to put a smile back on her face I have added his name between her name and Uncle Minnie's!** _

_**Yours sincerely,** _

_**Shisui Uchiha** _

_**The** _

_**The Raven of Konoha** _

_**P.S. Did you all know that Hashirama knows the dirtiest of jokes? And that Tobirama likes to play pranks on occasion? I sure as hell didn't until I met them!** _

_**P.P.S. Tell 'Tachi not to do anything stupid, like take the blame for something he didn't do, okay. Thanks a bunch but I gotta go before Aunt Mikoto and Uncle Fukaku realize I'm missing again!** _

_**P.P.P.S. You, yeah, you there making eyes at my baby cousin! I'm know who you are and I'm watching you!"**_ More than one teenage girl goggled at the woman reading the letter in shock, since after she read the letter she had rolled it back up and tossed it to Zabuza so he could give it to Ibiki later.

The former mist nin held in his gleeful cackle but couldn't hide the grin on his face, despite their shock over the contents of the letter, all of the Konoha nins were amused by how obvious the pair were being about their attraction to each other. More than one of them were wondering just what was holding back the scarred Jounin when it was more than blatant just how much Zabuza was interested in him. Haku was merely happy that his master/father figure had finally found someone who made him sit up and pay attention to the world beyond the obsession to make Kiri more like Konoha.

Akasuka was drawn out of his memories by the sound of Baki laughing and he looked up to find the usually reserved and serious Jounin laughing at the sight of his second born child being pinned by a slight, usually meek girl. Hinata was crowing her victory while Kankuro appeared stunned as he laid under her, she was straddling his waist and he was trussed up using chakra strings. Apparently the former Hyuga heiress had carefully wove a web around the puppet master while he had been distracted by explaining certain tricks she could do with the strings that didn't involve puppets. When he had finally noticed the web around him the lavender eyed girl had snapped it closed so it was tight around him before she pinned him to the ground.

Naruto had cheered at that and said with a grin, "go Hinata, way to truss up a puppet user!" The entire group laughed at the flush that over took not only Hinata's face but Kankuro's as well, a fact that the two Suna nin's present did not miss.

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Anko left the T and I department with a smug smirk on her face, her co-workers, for the last two weeks, had been attempting to find out just who she was currently dating. Two days ago they had resorted to guessing and so far they hadn't even come close to being right at all, thankfully none of them were crazy enough to follow her on one of her dates. The purple haired woman slipped thorough the village to a large area of land, it had been bought about three years ago, Anko was puzzled by her boyfriends request that she go there to meet up with him for a picnic.

Once she arrived there she found her boyfriend passing the time by doing crunches, she watched him until he had finished before she whistled to catch his attention, as soon as he spotted her, the older nin's eyes lit up. Between one moment and the next he had crossed the large clearing to scoop her up into a hug as he said, far quieter than he normally spoke things, "Anko, my lovely flower, I'm so happy to see you!" As he had spoken he had twirled around in a circle, the special Jounin had her hands gripping his shoulders which, for once, were clad in a dress shirt while his legs were being hugged by a pair of sinfully tight black jeans.

Almost instinctively she wrapped her legs around his waist despite knowing that he could hold her with one hand all day and never drop her at all. After allowing the exuberant greeting for several moment the dango loving interrogator slapped him on the shoulder as she said, "that's quite enough, Gai, my legs work just fine so you can put me down now." He pouted slightly at that but did as she asked and put her back down on the ground before he led her over to a large tree in the center of the clearing, it bore scars from repeated blows so she knew that someone routinely used this clearing to practice in, idly she wondered if the large space was natural or if it had been made by a Shinobi.

If it had been created then it hadn't been done recently due to the way that the grass, bushes and other plants were growing, if she had to guess she would say that someone had once used the clearing to practice several destructive moves or jutsu's in so the clearing had grown from it's first size progressively to it's current one. A smile of fond amusement crept across her face when she spotted the large blanket spread out across the ground with a basket sitting on it, although it was November the cold weather had yet to hit Konoha so it was still warm enough for a picnic. He let go of her left hand so he could sit down on the blanket, she shrugged out of her coat before doing the same, she couldn't help the laugh that escaped out of her mouth when he pulled out several sticks of Dango.

He then presented them to her with a flourish as he said, "here, my beautiful blossom, I know that you adore them," she took the offered Dango from him and placed them on a plate he had set out earlier. All of the food was either handmade or from her favorite places to eat at, Gai watched as a delighted smile crept slowly across her face, he had never told her just how long he had been attracted to her before she had taken the option of approaching her out of his hands. The only one aware that they were dating besides the Hokage were Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto and Hinata since the four of them had come across the pair when they were being lovey-dovey with each other but the four of them swore they wouldn't tell anyone about the pairs relationship until the two adults were ready.

After Gai and Anko had eaten, she had pillowed her head on his thigh as she did she absently traced figures on his left forearm, "do you remember the first time I met you," she asked softly as she traced three Kanji onto the muscular limb.

Although the Jounin had noticed her the pair had never been properly introduced until three months into the awkward relationship they had at the time, Anko had come across four years previous after a bad mission where he had been partnered with Kakashi. Well actually if you wanted to be technical then Tortoise was partnered with Hound, but the mission went sour due to bad intelligence, neither Jounin were aware that there was a child in the house and Hound had been forced to kill the child to prevent any witnesses. A fact that Tortoise knew that Hound would hate himself for so when the female snake summoner had come across him the tortoise masked ANBU hadn't bother to get out of his armor before he had begun trying to train his anger and frustration out of his system.

As he stared down into her eyes Gai murmured softly, "how could I ever forget? You were practically in shock that the quiet thoughtful Tortoise of ANBU and the loudmouthed, exuberant, no real thought in his head beside training, Gai Might were one and the same but you didn't show it."

She huffed a soft laugh before she reached up and said as she caressed his right cheek, "I rather like it, you know," at his raised eyebrows she continued by saying, "I like being one of the few who know that you have a brain. I like being one of the fewer who you let your walls down around enough to see the real you and not the mask that you give the rest of the village." She then gave a lusty grin at him as she purred up at him, "not to mention that I really, really like being the only one to know just what you look like without clothes one and only an ANBU mask on your face!"

He groaned at that as he remembered a time when he hadn't been able to wait for her to put the blindfold they used so he could take his mask off. The very next day he had made a request to the Hokage to have her become her touchstone, although the Hokage had been startled by the request he had granted it easily enough.

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Begin Flashback

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Anko entered her apartment with a soft groan and stretched absently, she then froze mid-stretch when she spotted a note on her dining room table with yet another ceramic tortoise paperweight on it to hold it down. She smiled fondly as she picked up the lifelike animal, she cradled it in the palm of her hand as she picked up the note from her lover, she then moved to place it with the rest of the ones she had gotten from her lover as she read the note.

Her eyes widened in shock at the contents of the letter and she almost dropped her newest paperweight/trinket in reaction but she caught herself before her grip slipped, the letter was her lover asking her whether or not she'd be willing to be his touchstone. Although she was an ANBU her lover was completely unaware of that fact so him asking her to be his touchstone was a huge deal since most ANBU don't usually have non ANBU's as their touchstones, especially since it meant that he would have to reveal his non ANBU identity to her so that if he ever died on a non ANBU mission she'd know that her Tortoise wasn't coming back to her and why. But more surprising was that he was giving her the option of not knowing, or rather he stated that if she couldn't live with who he really was the he would tell the Hokage that she declined his offer of being his touchstone.

If she wanted to know who he was then all she had to do was to signal him via their usual manner, if she didn't want to know then she was to place a ceramic tortoise on her window sill and he'd come as usual. She stared down at the letter and read it over again, she then snorted lightly before she made sure that none of the ceramic tortoises were near her window sill before she placed her only glass tortoise onto the ledge. As she placed it down on the sill she had murmured softly to herself, "as if I'd pass up the chance to know who is under that mask. Besides I know who you are, I just don't know who the entire village thinks you are…"

Once the glass tortoise was in place she settled down to read a scroll that her lover had brought her one time, an hour later she heard the familiar sound of the glass tortoise being placed upon the shelf before the window was closed. Normally she would have already turned around to greet him with a smile but she didn't know if he had even bothered to wear his ANBU uniform or not, he placed his hands on her shoulders as he murmured, "good evening, my lovely one." A smile curved her lips at that, he had been the only man to not only tell her that she was lovely but also the only one that had cared about her pleasure, which was the same reason that he was the only man to return to her bed for more than one night.

She carefully lifted her right hand and placed it on his forearm as she softly said, "hello to you as well, my beloved Tortoise," she already knew that he held her heart. No matter who his real identity was she would still love him even if for no other reason than the fact that he always tried to make her laugh. She loved how he sometimes got her angry for no other reason than to see her eyes flash as well as how he worshiped her as if she was the most precious thing he would ever get the chance to hold.

She could tell from the light touch on his arm that he wasn't wearing his ANBU armor at the very least since she could feel bare skin under her fingers and she carefully turned around, her lover was wearing a pair of jeans and a tee shirt with the words of: _**'Love is like Heaven but hurts like Hell,'**_ written on it. She smiled at the words before she glanced up into his dark eyes while his face was hidden under the mask of a snapping tortoise/turtle, she caressed his jaw line as she said, "I think it's time that I finally got to see what my hands already know."

He smiled under his mask at that, she could tell just by the tone of his voice as he said, "as my lovely serpent wishes," she watched avidly as he undid the straps holding the mask in place before he slipped it off. Her eyes widened in shock as her mouth dropped when her lover's face had been revealed to her: a square jaw, deep black eyes, short black hair in a bowl cut and most distinctively, thick eyebrows.

Anko stared up at him in shock as she had thought to herself in vague disbelief, _'Tortoise of the ANBU, one of the most respected and feared members, is Gai Might. My thoughtful, serious Tortoise is also Gai Might, the loud, exuberant, challenge loving Jounin who wears green spandex suits with orange legwarmers!'_ As she stared at him, Anko absently noticed the worried look in his eyes, before he could say anything however she had ran her fingers through his hair as she smiled up at him. As she did she said, "you know, no one would ever guess that I'm dating you since very few people realize just how serious, quiet and thoughtful you can be, they probably think that you merely restrain yourself while in your ANBU uniform."

Gai relaxed when she said that only to groan with disbelief when she quipped, "even better, I can publicly claim you without sounding like it since I can say that I need to see my Gai or I have a date with my Gai but everyone would think that I merely said my guy!"

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End Flashback

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She was drawn out of her memories by a light tap on her wrist by Gai, she glanced up at him and abruptly she asked, "just how did you get permission to have our picnic here? No one knows who the owner of this land is since they requested that it not be posted, I know that more than one Clan of Konoha would love to own this land."

To her surprise the Jounin blushed slightly before he said with a sheepish tone to his voice, "actually, my blossom, I own it," her eyes widened in shock as they were wont to do whenever he dropped a bombshell on her like this. She listened with stunned amazement as he continued to explain in the same tone, "I bought it once I had enough money saved up from my A and B ranked missions. I wanted a place that whoever I ended up with could make into their own as well which was why I haven't really touched the land beyond using it for training in. I had wanted a piece of land that any children we had could settle down on as well so they could chose to stay near us if they wanted to," he had gestured around them as he had spoken.

He then tilted her head upward so he could stare down into her eyes as he had asked in a formal tone with a serious look on his face, "Anko Mitarashi, would you do me the honor of sharing the rest of your life with me?" He then flashed a smile at her with twinkling black eyes as he quipped, "and yes that was a proposal!"

A grin overtook her face and she sat up so she could pepper his face with kisses as she said in an excited tone, "yes, I'll gladly marry you, my beloved Tortoise!"

He heaved a sigh of relief as he reached down into the basket to pull out a slim box, he opened it and presented it to her. Inside of it was a pair of dogtags on slim chains, one held his rank and information on it as well as an engraving of a tortoise while the other held hers along with an engraving of a snake. Both dogtags had a matte finish so they wouldn't catch the light and reflect it back, he handed the smaller of the two tags to her it was the one that held his information on it. When she took it from him the ridges of her fingers ran across letters on the opposite side and when she flipped it over to take a look she found her information on that side along with the same snake that was on his dogtag.

The chain was just long enough to tuck under their clothes, or in Gai's case his jumpsuit, but short enough that an enemy wouldn't be able to grab hold of it and choke them with it. Of course it would be very difficult for anyone to get that close to the pair and if they did manage that then it would be highly unlikely that they would even need to use such an obvious method of killing them to do so. As he pulled her back down for a brief kiss he had murmured softly with a smile, "you can start planning our house and wedding later, for now, lets just enjoy the quiet time that we have together right now…"

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As Gai proposed to Anko, Zabuza had made his way to Ibiki's office, once there he had sauntered inside and shut the door behind him, the scarred Jounin tensed slightly at that but kept working on the piles of paper in front of him. "Can I help you with something, Momochi-San," he asked without looking up at the younger man as he marked yet another folder as complete and moved it to the outbox on his desk. He was startled when the grey eyed man had growled, more like Kimihiro's summons rather than Zabuza's own, before he slammed his hands on the top of Ibiki's desk.

"Well, for starters, you can begin calling me by my given name, **Morino-San** ," Zabuza snarled as he leaned down so that his and Ibiki's faces were only inches apart.

To Zabuza's bewilderment, he saw a look of longing flash across Ibiki's face before it vanished as if it had never been there at all as the older man said, "very well, if that is what you really want, Zabuza-San." It took all of Zabuza's self restraint to keep himself from gaping at the older man at that since he had been trying, unsuccessfully at that, ever since he had met him to get Ibiki to call him by his first name. And in the end all that it had taken was him simply asking the Head Interrogator to call him by the damn name to do it, he was halfway to yelling in frustration at that.

Meanwhile, Otter had come up to Ibiki's office to report on his observations of the Sabaku family's interaction with the last Uchiha when he overheard Zabuza saying in a frustrated tone, "just what do I have to do to get you into my bed! Don't smirk, I'm serious about this, I've been trying ever since I met you to do that and I'm this close," Otter heard a slight pause before the Devil formerly of the Bloody Mist continued, "to kidnapping you so I can have my wicked way with your gorgeous body!"

Otter had goggled at that, while on the other side of the door Ibiki was giving Zabuza much the same expression as he stared at him in shock over the comment about his body, he then set aside his brush as he said, "believe it or not… You've had my absolute, complete and utter attention since I've laid eyes on you, Zabuza-Kun." The scarred Jounin had fairly purred the last bit, he then locked a stare at the younger man as he stated, "I was merely waiting for you to make an overt move on me so I could take you to be without to bed without anyone being able to say that you might have been coerced into being there." At that he rolled his eyes because if someone really thought that Zabuza could be force to be anywhere he didn't want to be or do anything he didn't want to do then they were crazy and likely to be nuttier than Orochimaru on top of a fruitcake!

Zabuza raised his eyebrows at that before he asked in a slightly disbelieving tone, "in other words, I could march up to you in the middle of a busy street before pulling you into a kiss and nobody would bat an eyelash, simply because I made the first move!" When all Ibiki did in response was to nod, Zabuza's eyes had darkened and he purred out as he leaned across the desk, "good, now a few quick questions… First: are you in the middle of something important or can it possibly wait until later? Second question:," he paused for a moment to give the elder man a heated look as he asked, "can I drag you away from your work so you can ravish me and be ravished in return?"

Ibiki couldn't hold back the laugh nor the bemused affectionate look that crossed his face at that before he said with a dancing dark eyes, a fact that would shock everyone that thought he had absolutely no sense of humor, "this is merely regular paperwork that I could do in my sleep if it weren't for the fact that sometimes my subordinates slip odd requests into them and if I don't pay attention I could agree to the requisition of nine hundred lubricated condoms." At that he gave the other man a sardonically amused expression before he said, "it can wait," he then paused for a moment to do a slow once over of Zabuza, starting at his feet and ending with his eyes, before he purred out in a husky growl, "if you don't drag me off so we can take turns ravishing each other then I'll be very disappointed in you."

As Ibiki had spoken, the crocodile summoner had prowled forward until he had been leaning on the desk across from the twenty-eight year old Jounin and once he had finished talking Zabuza had reached forward to grip the scarred man by the collar of his jacket. He then used that grip to pull him into a kiss, what had been meant to be a brief kiss swiftly became an intense deep one where each man attempted to win the duel of the tongues. When the pair parted, both men were panting breathlessly from the combination of arousal and the kiss, the grey eyed was shocked when he saw Ibiki's hands flying through the hand seals for the teleportation jutsu and they reappeared in a bedroom on a king-sized bed.

He only had a brief moment to take in the grey-blue walls along with the modern décor before the Head of the Torture and Interrogation department pounced upon him, Ibiki started to remove Zabuza's clothes as soon as he straddled the twenty-six year old. As he did he also systematically drove the former missing nin out of his mind by placing bites and kisses all along his neck, which was normally hidden under several layers of white wraps so it was extremely sensitive to touch. To Ibiki's surprise, even the slightest of touches could gain a moan and shudder from the other man, he tried sucking a hickey into existence and received a sudden buck of the hips along with a high whine of need. When he reached the junction of Zabuza's left shoulder and neck he had bitten down as hard as he could before he sucked a hickey onto the area so he knew that it would show if Zabuza takes off his shirt after this.

At that action Zabuza's hips bucked wildly and he keened as his orgasm hit him like a herd of stampeding horses, a pleased grin slowly crossed Ibiki's face as he watched his younger lover panting to recover his breath from the sudden rush of sensations. The older man had already removed both of their shirts but he had only removed Zabuza's pants and boxers before the twenty-six year old had climaxed. As he smiled devilishly down at his lover, Ibiki had leaned downward and slowly lapped up the white viscous fluid with a soft purr of pleasure.

The younger man shuddered at both the sight of the act along with how it felt to have Ibiki's tongue so close to his freshly spent but still rock hard shaft. Once all of the semen had been licked up by the older man, Ibiki had rose up so his hips were level with Zabuza's and ground his down into the grey eyed mans causing him to whimper as the rough feel of the other mans pants against his still sensitive cock. At first Zabuza merely laid there and took the movements while only giving pained but pleasure filled whines with every rock of Ibiki's hips. However, eventually he rolled Ibiki over onto his back with a sudden movement, as Ibiki's eyes widened in shock Zabuza had growled in his ear, "now it's my turn to find out just what it is that makes you moan and twitch!"

He then removed Ibiki's pants and undergarments, he couldn't resist the snicker that escaped his mouth when he spotted the saying scrawled across the front of the older mans boxers, he raised an eyebrow at the man pinned beneath him. He then repeated the words of the saying, _**"don't tick me off… I'm running out of place to hide the bodies,"**_ the older man had flushed at that as he looked away from the grey eyed man.

"They were a gift from an old friend who finds my job to be very amusing, okay," Ibiki huffed as he gave the still laughing man a soft glare.

After several more moments of snickering Zabuza managed to calm his amusement over the boxers long enough to turn his attention back to his lovers body, Ibiki had dozens of scars all over him. Some were made from blades, others from ropes and whips while yet more were from burns. Zabuza could tell that many of the fainter scars used to be much worse but even the best medics had a limit on how much scarring they could prevent from happening and, depending upon how old the wound was, heal old scarring. The faintest scars were burns, all along his torso, if Zabuza hadn't caught them in just the right light at just the right angle he would have only noticed them when he ran his hands along them.

Ibiki shivered at the way that Zabuza was studying his body, it was taking all of his hard won self control not to twitch or flush beneath that intent stare, however he lost the fight against the urge to twitch when Zabuza had begun to trace his scars. First with reverent fingers then with his lips and tongue, the grey eyed man traced the knife scars along Ibiki's shoulders, sides and legs, before he moved onto the burn scars on his stomach as well as the whip marks that trailed from his back to along his sides and hips. By the time the former nuke nin had gotten done with his exploration of the twenty-eight year olds scars, Ibiki's cock was weeping pearlescent tears and he was shivering with barely restrained arousal while his dark eyes were wide with shock, no one had ever treated his scars with such reverence and care.

His scars were usually either ignored by his lovers or treated with barely disguised disgust, Zabuza's reaction was one that his sensei had told him would come one day and he remembered that she had told him to never, ever let whoever did such with them have any reason to leave him. He could still recall the wry twist to his sensei's mouth and the rough grief ridden tone of her voice as she had said, _**"because a person like that will love you completely and unconditionally, faults and all unless you give them a reason to leave you. So, my dear little 'Biki-Kun, never and I do mean never, give them a reason to leave you, got it?"**_

Ibiki ran his fingers through Zabuza's spiky hair as he had asked, "why? Why are you treating my scars like you are, they're a hazard of the job, no more no less," his voice was soft as he had asked him that.

He was even further surprised when Zabuza had leaned down and murmured in his ear with a gentle tone to his voice as he rubbed his cheek against Ibiki's, "how can I not, when each and every one of them means that you lived so it could heal into a scar. All of them is a sign that you survived despite someone wanting you dead, so tell me just how can I not treat them with the love and care that they so richly deserve?" It was clear that his last question was purely rhetorical since he immediately said, "anyone who treated them with less than the respect that they deserve did not deserve to see them in the first place!"

Ibiki stared up at his younger lover as it dawned on him that Zabuza definitively wanted more from him than just a few tumbles between the sheets, he was looking for more with Ibiki than anyone else had ever wanted from him. The scarred Jounin had seen the look on several peoples faces and without fail all of those people were still with the person that they had directed that look toward. Even though they were now dead, Ibiki still counted Minato, Kushina and Sakumo as among those still together, mostly due to the intense loyalty of the three towards the other two of the triad, however very few people even knew that a relationship existed between them until after the deaths of all three. So if Ibiki was indeed reading the expression etched on Zabuza's face correctly right then and there, then the former nuke nin was falling, or had already fallen, in love with him, very fast.

However to his surprise, instead of feeling trapped, apprehensive or dismayed over that possible fact, Ibiki's heart raced in a much faster pace then when he was in the middle of an intense spar and pleasure hummed along his veins as a spark of possessiveness lit a fire in his blood. He then thought darkly to himself as he stared up at the grey eyed man, _**'you're mine and only mine! If anyone dares to try to take you away from me when you don't want to leave or me from you then they will wish that it was Kushina-Sensei after them because I never willingly let go of what is mine!'**_

With that thought in mind he pulled the grey eyed man down into a possessive kiss before he rolled him over so the other man was pinned beneath his weight, instinctively Zabuza had spread his legs open to accommodate the bulk of Ibiki's torso between his thighs. His grey eyes were wide as he stared up at the older man, Ibiki then leaned down and asked in a rough tone as he raked his nails down the pinned man's chest, "how far are you willing to go?"

A slow smile crossed Zabuza lips as he nuzzled the older man's neck as he murmured back in a lusty tone, "as far as you are willing to take me," as he had spoken he had hooked a leg over Ibiki's and rocked his hips upward. His actions caused a rumbling growl to reverberate from the older man's chest, Ibiki's eyes were dark with lust and considering his eyes were black in the first place that was quite a feat. Zabuza couldn't keep himself from moaning with pleasure as Ibiki ran his hands all over his body, calculating how sensitive certain places were compared to others, and without the crocodile summoner even noticing, Ibiki had coated the fingers of his right hand with oil.

Thus when he circled the younger man's entrance, the former mist nin's eyes widened in shock but after several moments of just driving having him massage the muscles of his entrance without trying to penetrate was driving him crazy and Zabuza growled, "stop teasing me, already!"

Ibiki had chuckled darkly before he had said, "as you wish, my pretty one," at that endearment the ex-nuke nin gave Ibiki a disbelieving look that quickly dissolved inot a pleasure filled one when the older man had slid a finger inside of him. Ibiki was able to quickly stretch Zabuza since, even though he didn't have perfect control over his body, the grey eyed man did know how to control certain muscles to prevent damage if he had been captured or tortured. Within minutes Ibiki slid his fingers out of the writhing and moaning man below him to slick up his own cock, he gripped one of Zabuza's hips to steady himself as well as to keep the younger man still. He had then guided his lubricated cock to Zabuza's opening with his left hand, he pressed forward with a steady pressure to allow the muscle there to slowly give and engulf his shaft.

Once the first few inches of his shaft was inside of Zabuza, Ibiki then used his left hand to prop himself up and his right hand to lightly tease Zabuza's cock back to full harness despite the obvious discomfort of it's owner. He held still as soon as he was sheathed hilt deep in the younger man, Zabuza panted as he adjusted to the large, thick intrusion but after several long moments he shifted slightly causing Ibiki to let out a sharp short breath that sounded like a hiss. Zabuza blinked for a bit before he smirked slightly before he clamped down with his muscles around the bulk, his action caused Ibiki's hips to jerk backwards before moving forward, the movement caused the pinned man to moan and arch upward, Ibiki's abortive thrust had managed to nail Zabuza's prostate without truly trying to.

Zabuza looked up at the older man with hazy eyes as he purred out a plea, "please do that again, 'Biki."

The scarred Jounin chuckled before he shifted his weight slightly more onto his haunches and after calculating the angle he had shoved in with previously could be made in this position, he pulled back until only the head of his cock was inside the other man and when Zabuza started to whine at the empty feeling the older man slammed back inside of him. A smug grin crossed his face as a high keen of pleasure escaped his mouth, Ibiki had scored a second direct hit to his prostate. The dark eyed man had stopped stroking Zabuza's shaft so he could grip the younger man's hips instead and when Zabuza had attempted to pleasure himself Ibiki had used a jutsu to pin the sword users hands to the headboard.

As he kept up the rhythm of a slow easy slide out combined with a hard fast thrust in, Ibiki idly wondered to himself if the inventor of that particular jutsu would have ever guessed that it would one day be used in such a fashion. Unknown to him, he would one day be granted the unique opportunity to ask the inventor that very question and her answer would stun him but at the moment he was more concerned with getting his new lover to come to a climax without a single touch to his cock.

His wish to see Zabuza come undone was granted only moments later when the younger man screamed with pleasure and came, Ibiki followed shortly thereafter when Zabuza's muscles clamped down on him and milked his shaft while in the throws of his orgasm. Ibiki rested against the other man before he slowly rose up off of him and pulled out of him while the younger man was still recovering from the bone shattering orgasm that had torn it's way through him. Zabuza had still be riding the endorphin high so he didn't feel any of the soreness yet from the stretch his muscles had to do to accommodate the bulk of the older man's shaft. Instead he whined at the loss of it's presence inside of him and the empty feeling it produced, Ibiki nuzzled at the younger mans neck soothingly before he rolled out of the bed to go get a cloth to clean them both up with, as he did he released Zabuza from the binding jutsu.

However, when he stood at the end of his bed he stared down at the sight that was before him on his bed, he stood there for a moment just memorizing how debauched looking the former mist nin was sprawled across his bed. Zabuza's legs were still slightly spread and semen was seeping slowly making it's way down his thighs, a flare of possessiveness lit inside of him and with a slightly hungry growl he crawled back on the bed. With a quick move he pulled the startled man's hips up and his thighs apart before he began lapping up the semen dripping down his thighs before spreading Zabuza's cheeks apart to lick him clean rather than getting a washcloth like he had planned to do.

Once the younger man's entrance was clean and mostly closed, Ibiki lowered his hips to the bed and lapped up the former mist nins release, completely ignoring the way that Zabuza's spent cock twitched as it valiantly made the effort to become hard again. Needless to say, it failed in the attempt, Ibiki then curled up around the relaxed and sated man, after a moment Zabuza had murmured as he tucked his head under Ibiki's chin, "let's leave round two until after a nap, okay, 'Biki?'

The interrogator chuckled before he nuzzled the younger man's hair as he said, "I'll hold you to that, my Wani," he had curled up tighter around the younger man as he had spoken and inserted his leg between Zabuza's thighs. He then draped his arm over his lovers waist, as his eyes slipped closed he had heard a soft mutter of assent from the grey eyed man and he fell asleep with a smile of contentment on his face.

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"Hey, Orihime," Kushina called out and when the other red haired girl looked up at her from where she was sitting by Blaise Zabini, she asked, "do you have any other relatives beside your parents? I know that you had an older brother, Sora, who took care of you until he died but I was wondering if there was anyone else…"

Orihime blinked a bit at that before, much to Blaise's surprise, she grinned and giggled as she said, "I have a cousin named, Yoichi Hiruma," her eyes danced as she remembered the last time she'd seen the blond, he had spent over two hours chattering about how this year they'd make the cup. After a moment of remembrance she said with a soft smile, "Kushina's old Quidditch captain Oliver Wood, reminds be of him because they are both obsessed with a sport to such a degree that it's their life! Only Oliver is obsessed with Quidditch while Yoi-Chan is obsessed with American Football," at that her face brightened before she said in a gleeful tone, "you know, Yoi-Chan sent be one of his old jersey's just last month, it was from when he just started his team so it actually fits me pretty well!"

At the same moment that Orihime spoke of her cousin, in Japan a teen with wild spiky blond hair, pointed ears, two pair of peircing's and a fang filled mouth sneezed suddenly, after he rubbed his nose to get rid of the slight tingle from it he glanced down at his dog. "I think someone is talking about me, Cerberus," he then grinned suddenly as he chirped, a fact that would simultaneously worry and awe his team, "I really need to visit Orihime-Chan soon, it's been ages since I've seen her! I believe she's staying in England during the summers and I've always wondered if Rugby players could stand up to American Football players!" With that comment he left the area with a grin on his face so he could go pen a letter to her to ask if he could visit her during the summer next year as well as to make more than one phone call.


	21. Chapter Twenty: Of Puppets, Scythes and things that go BOOM!

**A/N: Sorry about taking so long to post this but being a manager eats up my time so I hardly have any time to write during lunch break anymore. I work eight day shifts before being off for six days so during the first few days that I have off I'll write then type the chapter before posting it the day before I have to go back to work. That is unless my muses decide to be uncooperative like they were this week... :glares over her shoulder at the group in her living room:  
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**Chapter Twenty:** _Of Puppets, Scythes and things that go BOOM!_

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Camilla watched in amusement as Kankuro patiently explained to her adopted daughter how to turn subtle movements of her fingers and wrists into the movement of the puppet, the serpent clan heiress listened intently as she cradled her first puppet, a gift from Kankuro, which was a cat. He demonstrated how a flick of his wrist combined with a curl of his fingers caused Karasu to lunge forward at the target before he had her attempt the move herself, it took her five tries but she finally got her cat to leap at the target. Kankuro beamed at that before he said, “good, now try again,” she nodded and focused, this time the cat leapt at the target on her first try and he beamed at her before he said cheerfully, “looks like you have that particular combo down but remember, practice makes perfect!”

At that Hinata flushed a light pink since she rarely ever received praise from her old clan for her training, due to that she blushed at the slightest amount of praise or approval over how she was doing in her training. In the week that had followed their adoption Neji and Hinata both showed more changes than merely having slit pupils, their fingernails had lengthened slightly as well as gaining a point and becoming sharp enough to cut trees easily. The first time that Neji had gotten angry more features had shown themselves, when he bared his teeth his canines had lengthened into sharp fangs and he had begun ranting in parseltongue, a fact that surprised everyone since until then only Naruto and Camilla had spoken the language on a regular basis.

Hinata took advantage of her new found gift of the serpents tongue to summon her snakes for chats as well as recon missions, both Kurenai and Kakashi had decided that although neither of their teams would take missions outside of the village until the end of the Chuunin exams there was no reason to limit them to D-rank missions or low level C-ranked missions. Some of the administrative missions were ranked as high C class missions since the paperwork could be sensitive, others were ranked as such if requested by the person wanting the job done or if they had a time rush on them.

By the fourth day of the two teams doing mid to low C-rank missions they were politely asked by the mission desk to not come back until after the Chuunin exams, the Hokage ordered them, well actually he requested it but he meant it as an order, that the two Jounins teach their students or drill them in techniques and formations. Thus the reason behind Kankuro teaching Hinata how to use puppets, unknown to either Hinata or her teammates Kankuro had an ulterior motive for offering to teach her, he was using the time spent with her to get to know her and to try to get her to see him as a potential suitor in the future. The previous day the group had finally gotten an answer as to where Temari had been running off to every day, it seemed that she was meeting up with Shikamaru to play shoji, a fact that amused the lazy Nara's father and sensei both.

The blond girl had found a book on strategy for shoji and unknown to her it had been written by a woman who routinely won her own shoji matches against a Nara as much as she lost them. The only clue that Temari had toward the identity of the person who wrote the book was a single symbol embossed into the front cover, it was a simple three bladed scythe with the shaft of the scythe bisecting the exact center of a triangle surrounded by a circle. She had found the moves suggested inside of the book fairly easy to understand and figured out the various ways that they could be used together, as such her playing style was unpredictable for Shikamaru to predict like he could with most of his opponents.

After they had been informed as to their enforced break from missions everyone had been amused by how Akasuka would accompany Sasuke around the village, so far none of the Uchiha's fan girls were foolish enough to bother him while the red haired Suna Shinobi was keeping him company. As such Sasuke didn't bother to use his female form all that much, the only time the teen used it was to train or if he felt like it such as the one time Sasuke had the urge to dance to some odd music kept in the Uchiha library. As she remembered the sight that they had come across that day Camilla had smiled in bemusement, one of the songs had been interesting to hear since it had spoken of a couple, a woman sung it and Sasuke still occasionally could be heard singing or humming the song.

Whenever Akasuka heard the teen singing it he got an odd look on his face before he blanked his expression and focused on something else instead, three days after Hinata and Neji's adoption into the Slytherin Clan all three of the Sabaku children requested that Sasuke take the place of their mother. The teen agreed to their requests, on one condition, the adoption would be done on the next full moon which was in only four days, Camilla had overheard the three wondering just what traits from Sasuke they would inherit after the adoption as well as how pleased they were to no longer be related to **that woman**. Idly Camilla wondered what their biological mother had done to earn such hatred from her own children and resolved to ask Baki about it.

She watched Hinata with an indulgent smile, to the surprise of the two cousins and Hiashi, the violet eyed woman was prone to spoiling the two teens, however she was also very protective of them such as when the adoption ritual had destroyed the caged bird seal on Neji. When confronted about it's removal from Neji the dark haired woman had shrugged before she stated calmly, _“my blood would only have destroyed something that could have caused harm to someone that I care for. If it couldn't harm Neji then my blood wouldn't have removed it, therefor, no you cannot put it back on him.”_

After a few more moments of watching the pair Camilla turned around and walked into the large house she shared with Hinata and Neji, she walked across the living room to the kitchen. Once inside she began to prepare lunch for the group training outside, her lips curved into a smile at the startled cry from Kankuro before Hinata started giggling. “It's not that funny, Hinata-Chan,” Kankuro yelped and idly Camilla wondered just what had happened but she knew that her daughter would tell her later about what had made her laugh like that.

####################################################################################

The day after the Sabaku siblings adoption into the Uchiha clan as Sasuke's children Naruto had been bored and had been wandering around the village absently planning his next prank when he had bumped into another blond. She looked to be about sixteen or so but he couldn't be too sure, her bangs were covering her left eye and she flashed a sheepish smile down at him as she said, “sorry about that, my husband is always telling me to watch where I'm going!” As she had spoken she held up a book as the reason she hadn't been looking ahead of herself, Naruto's eyebrows shot upward when he read the title of the book.

“One thousand and one ways to make explosives from household chemicals,” he read slowly before he glanced up at her with a questioning look.

She rubbed the back of her neck as she muttered in a slightly embarrassed tone, “believe it or not, I rather like blowing things up... My husband jokes, at least I think he's joking when he says it, that if it goes BOOM then I'll either do it, try it, read about it or watch it.” she shrugged before she said, “he indulges me on occasion by finding books like this or letting me try the explosives out on things.”

“Sounds like he loves you,” Naruto remarked lightly before he grinned and said cheerfully, “I could show you a few Shinobi techniques! I fully understand the whole liking things that go boom since I love doing that myself, but at least its somewhat expected in my line of work.”

She blinked a bit at the invitation but happily accepted with a smile and the thought of, ' _I never expected that Konoha's Jinchuuriki liked explosions. Who would have ever guessed! Wait until I tell Sasori-Danna about this tonight!'_ As they walked off to a little used training ground she said aloud, “the name is Dara, what's your name, little one,” as she asked him that she tilted her head to the side.

Naruto grinned up at her before he exclaimed, “the name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to be the Hokage one day. Believe it!”

She giggled before she bowed her head and said with a twinkle in her visible eye, “then I look forward to the day!”

With that comment they had reached the training ground and Naruto wasted no time before he began to show her the various ways that he made things blow up. Those many ways had included exploding clones, tags and seals along with flash bombs, he also showed her a few jutsu combos that caused a pretty but rather useless bang.

Two hours after they had met Kakashi found his student with the blond woman, he had led a man there since the man's wife, Dara, was gone from their rooms and Kakashi's dogs had sniffed her out to this particular training ground. The man took one look at the pair before he groaned softly, Gai's team had come by to see just who was causing the explosions and found Naruto in the left side of the training ground cheering as a large bomb went off in the center of it. Neji raised an eyebrow at that as he thought to himself absently, _'so, Naru-kun likes explosions, huh... I wonder if any of my former clan knows of this little personality quirk.'_

Kakashi noticed the look of weary resignation on the blond woman's husband's face and patted him lightly on the back as he said with a slight smile as he tried to cheer the man up, “at least my teammate Obito, isn't alive nor is Naruto's mother, Kushina. I would actually feel sorry for their enemies if those four were in the same place and could plot with one another,” as he had spoken several people across the hidden countries felt as if someone was dancing on their graves.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Madara stopped in his tracks as he felt as if someone was dancing over his metaphorical grave and his right eye muscles twitched, he then glanced around warily before he muttered to himself under his breath, “stop being so paranoid. It's highly unlikely that Hashirama's brat's brat's brat will inherit his sense of humor and love of explosions,” he pointedly forgot/ignored Kushina, her sons and Kimihiro's reputations. All three either had or was swiftly gaining a reputation as Shinobi not to be messed with, Kimihiro had taken one look at team seven's Kumo and Suna files before he started laughing uncontrollably.

When asked as to why he was laughing so hard, the red haired man had unsealed ten bingo books, he placed the first four down and flicked one open to a profile of a red haired woman. Baki had picked it up and read it aloud, “ **Name: Mito Senju nee Uzumaki**

**Age: 56**

**Height: 5' 8”**

**Hair color: Red**

**Eye color: Blue**

**Rank: High Chuunin to Mid-Jounin**

**Notes: Approach with caution, extremely temperamental and irritable if her family is endangered. Flee if you see her enter the Red Haze or stay and die.”** The Suna Jounin goggled at the entry before Kimihiro flicked through the book while he was still holding it and he gestured for the dark eyed man to read the next entry. Wary of the smirk on the older man's face Baki did as he asked and Akasuka listened intently to Hashirama Senju's profile as created by Suna all those years ago.

Everyone around them goggled at how much Hashirama's file was similar to Naruto and Sasuke's files, Baki gave it an odd look before he continued to the next file which was on Tobirama. However, before he could read it aloud Akasuka stole the book from him and read it to aloud to himself, “ **Name: Tobirama Senju**

**Age: 26**

**Height: 5'9”**

**Hair color: White**

**Eye Color: Red**

**Rank: Mid to High Jounin**

**Notes: Approach with caution, he has a habit of pranking those who annoy him and often will use his opponents as targets for his experimental jutsus.”** The red haired Kazekage then snorted as he muttered to himself, “I'm beginning to wonder if all of the Senju Clan are insane or if only the members exposed to the influence of an Uzumaki are... I'm still not sure since Tobirama's brother was married to an Uzumaki...”

As he muttered to himself Sasuke had stolen the book from him and idly flicked through it, he found a page that made the currently female Uchiha snarl in rage, at Akasuka's questioning glance Sasuke read the file aloud in a biting tone. **“Name: Madara Uchiha**

**Age: 32**

**Height: 5' 10”**

**Hair color: Black**

**Eye Color: Black**

**Rank: High Jounin**

**Notes: Considered to be highly dangerous, although an Uchiha by name and blood he is considered by the majority of his clan to be an oath breaker and thus not an Uchiha. Face only if absolutely necessary and if spotted inform Konoha and the Uchiha clan immediately.”** By the end of the file everyone's eyebrows were raised in shock and after calming herself the dark eyed girl said with a sneer, “I swear if he's still alive I'm going to kill him for his crimes against the clan and it's allies!”

Absently the Kazekage made a mental note to himself, _'never ever, under any circumstances, anger Sasuke, in either form...'_ Sasuke was cheerfully describing the tortures she'd visit upon any traitor of her clan, one of the things that she planned to do was castration, no matter the gender of the traitor, a fact that made all of the men wince in sympathy. The girls on the other hand were taking mental notes to use as threats of torture for any enemies or guys who wouldn't take no for an answer.

Kakashi found his, Rin's and Obito's files, he snorted at the comments in them before he murmured softly, “Obito would find this embarrassing to read...”

Sakura looked over his shoulder and read the three files silently to herself, she then shook her head and said with a teasing smile on her face, “if this Obito was anything like how Naruto was during the Academy then he'd definitely find it insulting!” She then rubbed her cheek against her Sensei's shoulder before she said cheerfully, “I hate to comment and dash but I got to go meet up with Sai, I promised him that I'd help him study human behavior!” With that said she raced off toward team Seven's usual training grounds for her meeting with the odd teen, Kakashi suspected that the painter was one of Danzo's ROOT ANBU but couldn't prove it. Besides, he suspected that long term exposure to his brats would do the kid some good, after all the three managed to gain the affection of Suna's demon, the Devil of the Mist and the respect of Kumo's Raikage before they were even Chuunin.

Kakashi shrugged before he turned his attention back to the book and flipped through it, he raised an eyebrow when he noticed two more files on Senju's and two more on a pair of Uzumaki's. Neither pairs were ones he recognized so he read the first two files aloud, “ **Name: Yoban Uzumaki**

**Age: 24**

**Height: 5' 10”**

**Hair: Red**

**Eyes: Grey**

**Rank: High Chuunin (should be listed as High Jounin)**

**Personal Summons:**

**Notes: Never get on his bad side, like all Uzumaki's he has the bad temper and the tendency to slip into the Red Haze if pushed too far. NEVER and I do mean NEVER touch his wife or you will die a very painful death because if she doesn't kill you he will.**

* * *

  **Name: Mikoto Uzumaki nee Uchiha**

**Age: 25**

**Height:5' 6”**

**Hair: Black**

**Eyes: Black**

**Rank: High Chuunin**

**Personal Summons: Badgers**

**Notes: Under no circumstances engage in combat unless there is no choice, she is skilled in the Sharingan and her husband is very protective of her.”** At that most of the people around him goggled in shock, they all silently wondered just who these two people were and if they were related to Naruto.

To everyone's surprise Kimihiro huffed a laugh as he said with a wry grin, “that's mom and dad for you, relative easy going but touch someone they love and they'll stop at nothing to kill you.” His eyes danced as he glanced over at Baki before he stated slyly, “not to mention how very proud they had been that their children inherited some of the two clans bloodline limits.”

Sasuke frowned in puzzlement before she asked, “which bloodline did Naruto's mom inherit?”

Kimihiro huffed a soft laugh before he said while he rubbed his brow, “she inherited the bloodline limit of mom's clan, in fact she activated it when we were quite young. She also had the Uzumaki clan's huge chakra coils,” he gave them all a sardonic smile before he said, “makes it difficult to learn jutsu's that need precises control over chakra.”

He then gestured at Kakashi to continue reading the files he found interesting, the silver haired man did as he asked, “ **Name: Arashi Senju**

**Age: 28**

**Height: 5' 11”**

**Hair color: Black**

**Eye color: Blue**

**Rank: Chuunin**

**Personal Summons: Komodo Dragons**

**Notes:** **He is vicious when protecting his wife so approach him with caution when he is with her and avoid all unnecessary combat if you can.**

* * *

**Name: Kimiko Senju nee Jashin**

**Age: 33**

**Height: 5' 10”**

**Hair Color: White/Silver**

**Eye Color: Blue**

**Rank: High Jounin**

**Personal Summons: Hawks**

**Notes:** **She is extremely vicious when her husband is in danger so avoid doing so at all costs. Apparently she prefers using a three bladed scythe above all others, the blades are blood red with the symbol of a triangle surrounded by a circle with a line bisecting both. Do not under any circumstances engage in combat unless absolutely necessary!"** Sasori stared at Kakashi in shock since the woman, Kimiko had the same Clan name as the religion that Hidan followed not to mention that her weapon highly resembled the scythe that Hidan used all the time. Arashi's file had caused more than one non Konoha nin and civilian to raise an eyebrow, especially his personal summons, the Komodo Dragons. Even Ibiki raised an eyebrow at that since he was now the summoner they answered to, he had never known that the last person before himself was the first born son of the Shodai Hokage, Father to Tsunade and uncle to the Red Hot Haberaro of Konoha.

However, Sasori held back his shock since not only did Kimiko own and apparently wielded Hidan's scythe so long ago, she had forged it herself and he idly wondered if the fact that her clan name matched the religion that Hidan followed had anything to do with each other. So Sasori, or rather Sori as he was known to the Konoha people, thumbed through the book as he asked Kimihiro, “could I get a copy of this page, I know someone who has a similar scythe in their families possession but I'm not one hundred percent sure that it is the one mentioned...”

Kimihiro shrugged nonchalantly before he plucked the book from the younger man's hands and with a few simple seals, simple to him anyway but something only an adept of another village could do, copied the page onto a scroll. He then handed the scroll over to Sasori as he said cheerfully, “there you go,” as he did everyone gaped at him in shock, upon seeing their faces he said absently, “I can copy the entire book if any of you want a copy. Why do you think that the Uchiha and the Uzumaki libraries are so huge and carry many of the same books as the other, we would make copies of the books or scrolls we found or wrote for the other clan. However the Uchiha Clan Library holds the most comprehensive collection of Bingo books in the entire hidden countries, which includes the Konoha Bingo book although,” he said thoughtfully as he tapped his chin, “that one was updated more than five years ago along with all the others...”

Before anyone could comment about that they all heard a loud percussive KABOOM coming from an old unused section of Konoha that had long ago been slated for demolition years ago but no one had ever gotten around to doing it yet. Sasori sighed in exasperation since he had a feeling that Deidara and her new partner in explosions had something to do with that boom, he just knew it. His internal feelings were shared by everyone who had met the two blue eyed blonds, even Naruto's teammates since Sasuke and Kakashi both sighed before they muttered under their breaths, “Naruto, what have you done this time...”

With that said the entire group raced over to the area, however when they arrived, to their surprise, Naruto and Deidara had just arrived themselves looking just as confused about the boom as they were. Iruka raised an eyebrow at the sight of Sakura standing next to Sai with a sheepish expression on her face standing about twenty feet away from a completely demolished building. Upon seeing the group that completely surrounded them from above Sakura uttered a sentence that would become almost the trademark of Team Seven, _**“it seemed like a good idea at the time, honest.”**_

Sasuke, who was still in his female form, raised an eyebrow at her before saying with a sardonic smile, “Sakura-Chan, I could have sworn that it was Naru-Chan who loved to blow things up not you!” More than one person looked over to the voice to see the girl that sometimes went out to lunch with Sakura and Naruto standing next to Akasuka. She was leaning against his side, the red haired man was absently running his fingers through her dark locks, which were out of her characteristic ponytail for once, those who were unaware of who she actually was raised an eyebrow at the pairs closeness. After all, Akasuka usually only showed physical affection with his children and Sasuke so for him to show such affection to this girl was quite astounding and caused more than one of them to frown since it was more than obvious that Sasuke held quite a bit of affection for the man as well as the three Sabaku children.

Shortly after she said that Naruto had called down to Sakura with a smirk, “Sora's right, Sakura, I could swear that Kakashi-Sensei said that I'm in charge of all booms needed by Team Seven unless absolutely necessary!”

Sakura leaned against Sai's side as she pouted up at her fellow teammates before she turned her multi colored eyes to Sai as she said in a mock sad tone, “I did a bad thing Sai, I stole Naruto's thunder...”

Sai blinked a bit before he started to chuckle, an action that caused everyone that had met the silent raven haired teen to goggle in shock, before he patted her on the shoulder as he said with a hint of mock seriousness to his voice, “I'm sure they will forgive you... In about ten years!”

She flashed a small smile, where the civilians couldn't see but most of the Shinobi spotted it, before she wailed, “BUT I DON'T WANNA WAIT TEN YEARS I WANT FORGIVENESS NOW!” After she said that she tucked her head into the crook of Sai's neck and her shoulders shook with what the civilians thought to be silent sobs but was in fact due to her suppressed laughter.

 _ **Sora**_ smirked at the pink haired girl before she called out to her, “enough with the crocodile waterworks, I don't think you're going to get an award for this particular performance, Sakura!”

Sakura snorted before she smirked up at the older girl as she said, “shows what you know,” she then gestured where the civilians had been standing along with a few of the ninja's from grass, mist and stone, at least they had been standing there until she brought out the waterworks. “I think they bought it and if they pass the information along to their teams then it's their own fault for not looking _underneath the underneath_ ,” she stated with a grin. Her word showed that _**Sora**_ had been right and that Sakura had been faking her waterworks and sobs earlier just to give the ones who fled the wrong information about her. Sakura then turned to Akasuka as she asked, “do you think Sasuke would mind if I brought Sai to dinner tonight?”

Akasuka rested his chin absentmindedly on top of Sora's head since the teenage girl had stepped in front of him and rested her back against his chest, after so many afternoons of Sasuke reading to Gaara while resting back against the Kazekage it was a very habitual thing for the pair. As he rested his chin on her the red head absently answered the Genin's question as he wrapped his arms around the raven eyed girls waist, “I don't see why not since you've brought Sai over for lunch more than once and she didn't mind.” A sly smile crossed the thirty-three year old's face as he glanced down at _**Sora**_ as he asked in a mischievous tone that revealed that, yes, his sons did take after him, “what do you think about Sakura's question, my lovely sky? Will Sasuke be upset at Sakura if she brings Sai home tonight?”

Sora glanced over her shoulder at him with a slight smile before she said with a sly tone, “oh, I doubt that I'd mind very much at all, 'Suka-Kun,” as she had spoken Sasuke had released the Oiroke no Jutsu and everyone who hadn't already known that Sasuke could do that gaped in shock. Especially since the majority of them had seen her with Naruto and Sakura so they realized that Sasuke hadn't been sulking while the girl had been his teammates, he had just been hiding in plain sight!

####################################################################################

Despite the Hokage's wishes, or perhaps because of them no one was quite too sure which one it was that did it, Kimihiro had given Naruto free reign to wander the combined compound of the Uzumaki, Senju and Slytherin Clans. As such Naruto was now wandering the area completely bored out of his mind since his partner in blowing things up was being distracted by her husband and his teammates were training with other people, Sakura was teaching Sai how to be more sociable while Sasuke was teaching the Kazekage how to relax every once an a while. While wandering around he stumbled upon an out of the way building, when he poked his head inside he found a forge that clearly hadn't been used for decades. He slipped inside and poked around, as he did he found a old wooden chest tucked under a table as if it had been stuck there to get it out of the way and then completely forgotten about, it had a thick layer of dust caked on it over an inch thick.

He undid the latches on the trunk, or rather had a clone do the unlatching and opening of the wooden chest, resting inside on a deep purple cloth was a pole-arm that had scythes on either end of the pole facing opposite directions. As he stared down at the exquisite weapon he remembered that Neji had mentioned wistfully in passing that he'd love to wield either a scythe or a pole-arm but that the Hyuuga clan forbade such things since their style of fighting didn't use weapons beyond Kunai or Shiriken. Secretly the prodigy of the branch family had studied both weapons with training versions for years before being adopted by the Slytherin Clan. He ran a finger along the blunt edge of the nearest blade, as he did he noticed a mark etched into the blade, it consisted of a circle inside of a triangle bisected by a line.

Naruto frowned slightly at that and as he traced the symbol he spotted a chain out of the corner of his eye he noticed a chain hidden slightly under the weapon, he carefully reached down and snagged it by his fingertips. He pulled it out and saw a pendant of the same symbol on the blade of the weapon, however unlike the one on the blade it didn't have the two symbols flanking the line. As the blond ran his thumb across the ridges of the symbol while it rested in the palm of his hand he idly wondered who it had belonged to. It was too small to have belonged to a man but it had a matte finish which clearly indicated that it had belonged to a Shinobi and not a civilian, as Naruto placed the pendant in the bag he had found he glanced down where the pendant had been resting and saw a letter there.

He pulled it out and read it silently to himself, he goggled down at the page for several long moments of staring he read it aloud to himself, _**“Dear Naruto-Chan,**_

_**I'm sure that you are wondering just how I know your name since by the time that my beloved niece has given birth to you, I will have long since been dead and gone... Truth be told I have no clue why but my husband has told me to make a weapon of my choice and leave this note for you, I have long since learned to follow my Arashi's odd requests. Thus the pole-arm inside of the chest, I don't know just who it is supposed to belong to but you'll know who to give it to. The pendant inside is also meant for the person that you give the pole-arm to, if they are to wield a weapon forged by a Jashin then they shall bear the clan symbol of it as well.** _

_**Your Great-Aunt,** _

_**Kimiko Senju** _

_**Former heir of the Jashin Clan.”**_ He then blinked a bit but shrugged it off after a moment before he placed the now bagged pendant inside of the chest and slipped the letter inside of his pocket before he latched the chest closed tight, he would concede to his great-Aunts request. With that thought in mind he sealed the chest inside of a storage seal before he left the forge behind with a soft sigh, he then walked over to the next building that he wanted to investigate, he would give the box to Neji later.

He opened the door to his mother's great-Uncles house as he thought to himself absently, ' _I hope Neji likes them... but then again he might appreciate them since they were made and given to him by the wife of the first born son of the Shodai Hokage...'_

####################################################################################

Kisuke smirked as he sauntered into the Seireitei from the Rukongai, Ichigo had decided to visit the Shiba clan and tease Ganju about Hanataro, he had taken Masaki along with him when he had went, something that had caused Byakuya to panic the first few times that Ichigo had done so before he had remembered that Ichigo could take care of himself. He held in a snicker as he remembered, from witnessing the memory donated by Ichigo, how the Kuchiki clan council had panicked when they realized that Ichigo was very healthy and unlike before Byakuya's spouse was no Rukongai dog, instead he was the former head of the King's guard. As such Ichigo would no longer hold back the scathing remarks that he had held back as Hisana since no mere commoner from the Rukongai should know the laws of the Seireitei and Hisana had been trying to fly under the radar.

During the first eight months of Ichigo's pregnancy Byakuya had been careful to not anger or displease Ichigo but once he he had realized that Ichigo had forgiven him for his actions during the Ryoka invasion as well as his actions against Ichigo and Rukia before the invasion, he had relaxed enough to tease the human. Of course, the council almost had a collective heart attack when Byakuya had informed them about Rukia's engagement to a human with his full permission and approval, they had been trying to suggest an arranged marriage between Rukia and a man of their choice for years. When they had tried to insinuate that he didn't have the authority to do so without their approval the grey eyed captain had coldly stated, “it seems that it is not I who has forgotten my place but this council. I am the Clan head and within this clan my word is law,” he had stared at them with such icy eyes as he said in an aloof tone, “from now on you will keep your plotting to a minimum and if I see you near my spouse, any of my children or my sister then I will have you thrown off of this council and banish you from the clan.” He had moved his gaze down the line of pale faced council members before him before he asked, well actually he stated since none of them had a choice against his ruling or order, “am I understood,” at that he received quite a few vigorous nods since it was plain that Byakuya was deadly serious about his threat.

It would seem that his statement finally cause the council to realize that the obedient clan head that had appeared after his wife's death had vanished the moment that Hisana had barged back into Byakuya's life as Ichigo Kurosaki. However, the blond haired inventor had a funny feeling that none of them had yet figured out that their control of Byakuya had been lost the moment that Byakuya had realized that Ichigo was Hisana reborn and pregnant with his child, by unorthodox means yes but still pregnant.

Kisuke snorted softly to himself as he entered the twelfth division to go complete the paperwork that he had been neglecting for the last week, as he sat down to complete it he idly wondered how the Wizengamot trials were going. Since he was only the Lord Consort to the Lady of the Houses of Slytherin, Gryffindor and Noir he was not required to attend, oh he could go if he wanted to but he had no interest in doing so. Truth be told Byakuya had been ecstatic that he wouldn't have to say a darn thing if he attended any meeting that Ichigo had been summoned to since he was only Ichigo's Lord Consort.

Kisuke had been startled, along with more than a few captains, by the fact that the Soutaicho hadn't raised a fuss over the involvement of several high ranking officers with mortals, he was so surprised that he actually brought the matter up during a meeting. The Soutaicho reasoning was relatively simple: first almost all of the mortals involved with high reiatsu levels and would likely become after their deaths and second, the King himself had approved of the relationships so there was really no point in making a fuss over it as long as the Shinigami in question did their jobs. He had then pointed out to all of the people in the room that as soon as the Shinigami's in question discovered that they could visit their mortal loves for the weekends as long as they did their jobs right then the Shinigami's actually increased the speed of their work.

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“Tsunade-Sama, do you really want to go to Frost,” Shizune asked as they continued down the path, she had tilted her head to the side as she gently pointed out, “it is nearly time for the Chuunin Exams. If we head back now we can make it in time to see the second part of the exam...”

The blond woman walking in front of her sighed slightly before she stated firmly in a stubborn tone, “if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times Shizune, I'm not going back there until they've started to respect Kushina and Minato's wishes concerning their son.”

Shizune nodded in resignation as she sighed while she had thought absentmindedly to herself, _'oh well, at least I tried to get her to go back to Konoha... It just is that I have a really bad feeling about going down this road.'_

Two days later, her gut feeling was proven right when over twenty-five Nuke Nins had surrounded them, normally Shizune wouldn't worry about handling this many nins and winning but almost as soon as they appeared one of them cut themselves. He had then showed the bleeding wound to Tsunade causing her to freeze due to her phobia against blood and although Shizune was fighting as many as she could she watched in horror as the leader walked up to her teacher with his sword bared. Her brown eyes widened in shock and the leader had whirled around in shock when a man came out of nowhere, the man systematically killed or incapacitated all the nuke nins between him and the leader. At first he killed them with his bare hands but quickly picked up a weapon with each kill, either keeping it on him or leaving it in a dead body, so when he reached the leader and fought with him metal met metal in a clang.

As the man fought the ringleader, Shizune took the opportunity to take out the rest of the Nuke nins before removing the dead bodies from Tsunade's line of sight. As she moved the final body out of the way she heard a snarl of rage as the sound of a chain snapping filled the air, the two sounds apparently snapped Tsunade out of her daze and she glanced over at the sound to find an extremely familiar man using a very familiar set of moves to kill an enemy. Her eyebrows shot upward in shock since she recognized the man and the move, said person was supposed to be dead and the other user of said move was dead, not even the son of the man in front of her used the move when he wanted someone to think they were facing his father's ghost.

In the silence after he had killed the ringleader, Tsunade asked in a shocked and slightly angry tone, “ **Sakumo, what in all of the countries are you doing way out here?!”**

Shizune's eyes widened in shock at that, although she had never met the man personally she had been well aware of the silver haired Jounin's exploits as well as how he had been the partner of her Sensei's cousin as well as how he was supposed to be dead. She goggled when the now black eyed and silver haired man ran his fingers through his hair before he reached down and picked up the broken chain as he said, “I'm on a mission, 'Nade-Chan. Why else would I be in the middle of nowhere under a sealed Henge,” he raised a sardonic eyebrow at her and she inwardly twitched at how young he looked. The man was forty-seven years old but he barely seemed to be in his late twenties to early thirties, if Tsunade didn't know better she'd swear that he was an Uzumaki with how he had barely aged at all since the last time she had seen him.

“Maybe the reason that I'm so surprised to see you, even under the henge, is because you're supposed to be **DEAD,”** at first Tsunade had used a conversational tone before it had transformed into a scathing tone.

Tsunade watched as Sakumo had groaned as he rubbed his face tiredly before he muttered to himself, “damn I was afraid that would happen but it was the only one that would last that long without a regular dose of Chakra from me...”

She crossed her arms over her substantial chest and tapped her foot impatiently as she growled out, “you had better explain that comment as well as this mission you're supposedly on and who ordered you to go on it!” Shizune watched in bemusement as Sakumo merely raised an eyebrow at her Sensei and kept silent until, to her surprise and bafflement, Tsunade had bit out, “ **please.”**

At that Sakumo had leaned back against a rock before he said with a soft sigh, “I was sent here to spy on Frost until called back to Konoha,” his dark eyes gained an icy glint of anger and frustration. He had then said, “truth be told I had already made up my mind to head back to Konoha if I didn't hear anything of significance within the next month to demand just why I was wasting my time! As for who ordered me to come here, as far as I aware, that person was the Hokage but the orders were given to me by Danzo, Homura and Koharu,” his silver brows furrowed in puzzlement as he asked, “why did you ask me that, 'Nade-Chan?”

Much to his, and Shizune's, surprise Tsunade had pinched the bridge of her nose as she groaned quietly, she then stared at him in exasperation as she said, “did it ever occur to you that those three are constantly acting against the Hokage secretly... You should have asked the Hokage himself if he had ordered the mission before you left,” she raised an ironic eyebrow at him as she stated firmly, “because I highly doubt that he had sent you on the mission. If he had indeed ordered it then he would have told Kushina about it after your clone committed ritual suicide.”

At that statement Sakumo's eyes widened in shock before he asked in a faint tone, “just why in all of the freaking countries would my clone do that for!?”

Shizune listened, same with the silver haired Jounin, as her sensei explained the circumstances that was believed to be behind the suicide along with his partner's reactions to his death. He had closed his eyes when the older woman had revealed that Kushina had been so devastated by his death that she refused to take another partner and was forced by the Hokage, to protect her from retaliation by the council, to take on a group of students. She had also informed him about how Kushina and Minato had a son by the name of Naruto, at his sudden grin she forgot to mention that the pair had died shortly after the birth of their son and that Naruto now carried his mother's burden.

So flustered by his utter happiness over the existence of his partner's child Tsunade had agreed to accompany him back to Konoha right then and there, she had also agreed to lend her support when he faced the Hokage and the council. She knew that Sakumo would be up in arms over how the village had treated his beloved partner's son as well as how they had completely disregarded her final wishes along with Minato's. As the partner of Naruto's mother, Sakumo could do what Kushina had done which was to place her partner's son as a member of her clan and as such under her protection, unlike what his son could claim of Naruto since the blond was the only child of his adopted mother, aka his Father's partner, as well as being the only child of his Sensei and, unknown to her, his own student.

The three traveled back to Konoha, Sakumo had again placed the henge back on by replacing the chain for the pendant and gave his excuses to the mining camp. He had given them information that was a lie at the same time that it was the utter truth, he had told them that he had a family emergency and depending upon the outcome of the emergency would be if he returned. What he didn't tell them was if they ever saw him again they would never recognize him, with that thought in mind the three had left the mining camp that Sakumo had called home for seventeen years, as they left they headed southeast toward Hot Water.

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As Sakumo saved the cousin of his partner as well as her student, a white haired teen carried a tray down the hallway to an isolated cell, the man inside it wasn't really a prisoner in the traditional sense of the word. He had chosen to be secured inside of the cell away from everyone else so he wouldn't hurt anyone with his occasional bout of rage. He had glanced up at the sound of the door sliding open, upon seeing the green eyed teen standing there his red-orange eyes softened with affection and he said softly, “hello Kimimaro. I see that you got stuck with bringing me my meal for the afternoon.”

Kimimaro snorted as he knelt gracefully in front of the red eyed man before he said pointedly, “that implies that I didn't volunteer to bring your meal to you,” as he had spoken the green eyed teen had pulled out several sandwiches. Among which were sliced beef and sliced tuna placed inside of sliced open buns, he had handed two of them over to the red haired man. He had cocked an eyebrow at him with a small smile as he said softly, “after all, I never pass up the opportunity to see you, Juugo.”

He then took the two meat filled buns from the silver haired teen as he murmured softly with a small smirk, “and I'm always delighted to see you, Kimimaro.” His companion sent him a quick delighted smile before they both dug into the simple meal, once all of the food had been consumed the pair sat in a comfortable silence. The silence was only broken when Juugo had asked softly as he stared down at his lap, “was there anything Orochimaru-San wanted you to do or are you free for the rest of the day?”

Kimimaro looked over at the orange haired older teen when he asked that and said with a startled tone, “actually he wanted me to spar with you for a few hours,” at the other teens frown he explained, “he just wants to see if my control of my seal is compromised by my illness.”

Juugo's frown deepened but he followed him to a training ground that was one of the ones closest to Juugo's cell, less chance of them encountering anyone who might set off the older teen's temper. While they spared the two quietly discussed the upcoming Chuunin exams in Konoha and the subsequent invasion planned by Sound, Juugo paused in the spar long enough to wistfully state, “I wish I could watch the tournament part, maybe someone there knows which Clan I'm from...” The green eyed teen sparing with him was the only one besides Orochimaru to know just why he joined the snake user, it was to find out who his clan was. Juugo's family and, more than likely, his entire clan had died when he was far too young to really remember them, only vague memories remained. For instance he could recall a red haired grey eyed woman cooing down at him and telling his parents that they had a beautiful child, he could also remember how she had wistfully wondered if she'd ever have children one day herself.

It was due to this memory that he could even recall his parents names as well as their laughter since the pair had laughed before they had chided her for her doubt. His mother had remark had puzzled him for years, truth be told it still puzzled him, she had stated quite blandly, _**“your grandmother had doubted that she'd be able to have children herself. But she had met your grandfather and was blessed with your Uncle and your Father, so never doubt this: you will have children one day, I can promise you that, Cheetah-Chan!”**_

The woman who his mother had called Cheetah had snorted before she stated with a bemused tone, “I'll keep that in mind, Mori-Chan! I hate to chat and dash but I've got to get back home before my white wolf misses me!” With that said she had kissed Juugo's mother on the cheek before she rubbed her nose against his as she said softly, “goodbye for now, Juugo-Chan, I'll see you again someday, I can promise you that.” As she left the area she had called out over her shoulder at her mother, “by the by, Mori-Chan, the name is Ryuu now!”

The red eyed teen was brought out of the memories by Kimimaro saying, “perhaps you can see it,” when he stared at the silver haired teen Juugo had noticed a sly glint to those green eyes. As soon as he saw it he had the feeling that Kimimaro was about to suggest something that none except perhaps Juugo would guess that he would think that he'd suggest. His feeling was confirmed when Kimimaro said gleefully, “we'll just have to sneak out and go without Orochimaru-Sama's permission. After all, I've heard that it's better to ask for forgiveness then to seek permission,” as he had spoken the teen had bounced in place cheerfully.

Juugo chuckled softly, it never failed to amuse him how Kimimaro would act his age around him but be the calm, serious, no nonsense person he could be around everyone else, which, to Juugo's well hidden pleasure, included Orochimaru. His amusement was cut short when Kimimaro suddenly doubled over coughing, Juugo hovered worriedly over the smaller teen, Kabuto had been unable to diagnose the malady that afflicted him but had managed to discover that it wasn't contagious to his fellow Shinobi however he wasn't so sure about civilians with no ninja training. As the sudden coughing attack abated, Juugo retrieved a wet cloth and wiped the blood that was flecked on Kimimaro's hands before he carefully cleaned off the blood that was around the green eyed teens mouth.

“Maybe someone in Konoha would know what this illness is and how to heal you,” Juugo said hopefully, even though he had his doubts about that since he was fully aware that Orochimaru's teammate Tsunade was the best medic nin that Konoha produced. Not to mention that Kabuto was also a medic nin trained by Konoha, but he still couldn't help but hope that someone in Konoha might be able to diagnose the illness that affected his companion.

Although he also doubted that anyone in the village would be able to heal him, Kimimaro had nodded in agreement with Juugo's words and said, “perhaps, perhaps...”

 

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Grimmjow followed his slim boyfriend with a slight grumble, he didn't see the point in coming to the game but since it had been suggested by both Orihime and Uryu, he wasn't going to complain too much. The two had settled into their seats about halfway up the stands, seated near them was a teen with dreads wearing sunglasses, Grimmjow eyed the other man warily. He was surprised to feel a faint aura of Reiatsu emanating from the dread haired man, after a few moments he turned his attention to the field since the two teams had come out on it, he smirked when he noticed that one of the teams had a cross motif. From that alone he knew that Uryu would be cheering for that team, the other team was clad with red jerseys and white pants, he raised an eyebrow when he noticed that one of the team was wearing a green eye-shield.

All of the sudden his gaze snapped toward one of the other members of the red team, which he absently noted was call the Devil Bats he smirked as he wondered how Ulquiorra would take the name, the person that he noticed was a blond with green eyes. The man had four piercings in his ears, two earrings in each ear which were pointed much to Grimmjow's surprise, he noticed that the blond seemed to be in charge of the red clad group and before the blond put his helmet on he noticed a smirk on his face. Within moments of the game beginning he noticed that the blond faked a pass to the guy wearing the eye-shield, #21, but actually kept it in his own hands and while the other team chased after #21 the blond threw the ball to #80, or Monkey boy as Grimmjow was mentally calling him. Monkey Boy leapt up and caught the ball easily before landing in a touchdown, Grimmjow smirked when Uryu groaned quietly at the touchdown. That sneaky move caught Grimmjow's attention and when the blond actually passed the ball to #21 the blue haired Arrancar's eyebrow's shot upward in shock when the small teen that seemed somewhat familiar to him apparently used a variation of either the Shunpo or the Sonido to slip past the blockade formed by the other team.

It was amusing to those around the pair since they were cheering for opposite teams, Uryu had done what Grimmjow had suspected he would and was cheering for the White Knights while he cheered for the Devil Bats. The score ended with only a four point difference in the Devil Bat's favor, after several moments the pair decided to go down below and congratulate the teams on the well played game, well Uryu decided it would be a good idea and cajoled Grimmjow into doing it as well. Once on the field they split up to talk to the team they rooted for, so Uryu headed over to the White Knights side of the field while Grimmjow headed over to the Devil Bat's side.

The blond man looked over his shoulder when he heard a rough voice growl out, “nice game, I didn't think I'd be interested in this sport but you actually got me to like it...” The rest of the Devil Bat's stared in shock at the two since although their builds were slightly different along with their coloring and voices there was still something about the pair that screamed similarity. Everyone watching had the same odd thought pass through their minds, _'they have got to be related somehow in someway, no two people should be that similar and not be related,'_ this thought was not helped by the fact that the pair carried their weight in a similar manner and held themselves in a similar posture.

Yoichi Hiruma smirked to himself before he held out his right hand as he said, “it's always a pleasure to convert someone to the sport of American Football. The name is Yoichi Hiruma, what's yours,” he asked as he cocked his sharply featured face to the side and his team, especially those who knew him best, gaped at the way that Yoichi seemed to drop some of his masks around this guy.

Grimmjow took the other man's hand and shook it as he said with a sharp-toothed grin, “Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez and I'm glad that Uryu chose to take his friends advice that I'd really love this sport once I saw a game!”

“Uryu,” Yoichi asked in a curious tone, to Grimmjow's surprise the blonds question didn't raise his hackles like it normally did when it came to questions about his mate.

Grimmjow let go of the blonds hand, who was known to his team as the Commander of Hell, so he could put both of his inside the pockets of his jeans as he said with a smug smirk, “Uryu is my boyfriend.” The Devil Bat members gaped in shock at the blue eyed man at that, they gaped even further when Grimmjow said nonchalantly, “it took a little while to convince him that I was serious about us but once I did...” His smirk widened further as he trailed off, he then shrugged as he said, “he's the one that told me to come over and say thanks as well as to congratulate you on winning.”

Yoichi snorted before he waved his hand in the air dismissively as he said with a small smirk, “no problem and we hardly ever lose,” at his last remark the Arrancar's smirk widened as well as Yoichi's.

Uryu and the White Knights walked over, they were close enough to hear Grimmjow let out a rumbling laugh before he said with a grin, “I almost can't believe I'm saying this but I like your personality, normally I hate people with similar attitudes to my own.”

Of course what was shocking for both teams was how Hiruma had laughed, and not his usual maniacal laughter but a genuine laugh full of amusement, before he said, “the feeling is entirely mutual, Blue Boy!”

Uryu shook his head in amusement as he thought to himself, _'well at least he seems to have made a friend, I wonder if this is the cousin that Orihime talks about sometimes... After all he does have blond hair, chews gum, his ears are pointed as well as pierced and everyone seems to be a bit terrified of him... yep he has to be her cousin.'_

The Devil Bat's all looked up at the White Knights approach, Sena giving Shin a nod and a smile, all of them gave Uryu a raised eyebrow since they didn't recognize him but their other eyebrows shot upward when Grimmjow's smirk softened to a smile when he spotted the teen. He held out his hand, which Uryu took without thinking about it long since used to Grimmjow needing him close a majority of the time. The older male tugged the archer over to him until he could nuzzle his mate's neck as he murmured softly, “did you enjoy your chat with them, my sweetness?”

Uryu chuckled softly at the odd nickname, Grimmjow claimed that the archer always smelled and tasted sweet so therefor the name wasn't odd at all, Uryu merely played along and allowed the Arrancar to call him that as he pleased. “Yes, I did enjoy talking with them, my silly kitty,” as he had spoken Uryu had combed his fingers through Grimmjow's hair, which was slightly longer than before since it hadn't been cut since Grimmjow claimed him as his mate. The rhythmic caress caused a low purr to rumble out from Grimmjow's throat and chest, however at the utterance of the nickname by Uryu the sound was overlaid by a protesting whine. The archer laughed at the whine and sullen pout that Grimmjow pulled out on him at the nickname, he tapped the other man on the nose playfully.

“You find it amusing when everyone refers to Ulquiorra as Renji's pretty little bat and you allow me to refer to you as my pretty kitten, my silly alley-cat along with my silly tomcat and even as my crazy panther but you apparently draw the line at kitty,” teased Uryu. A grin spread across his face as he said with a twinkle in his blue eyes, “to misquote Rukia's fiance, ' _ **you really need to sort out your priorities!'**_ After all who knows what kind of nickname Renji could come up with if he knew that you hated being called a kitty!”

At that Grimmjow yelped in protest while Uryu laughed, the two teams shared a look of bewildered confusion be watching the pair in amusement, they were startled when the pair ceased all sound in a split second and both sets of blue eyes narrowed. “Do you feel that Uryu,” Grimmjow asked in a low tone as his eyes darted around the stadium as he tried to figure out where the spiritual energy was coming from. The archer nodded in answer as he also tried to figure out where the energy was coming from, as far as the pair could tell it was a hollow but they couldn't figure out if it was more than one or just a really powerful hollow. As the pair were glancing around trying to figure out where it was coming from, Sena had frowned along with the majority of both teams they could all sense a malevolent presence near them but could figure out where it was coming from.

All the sudden Uryu's eyes snapped to the left and he said, “over there, Grimmjow,” the blue haired hollow glanced over along with both teams, only a few on either team couldn't see the three beast stalking across the field towards them. To their surprise, Uryu had clapped his boyfriend on the shoulder with a grin as he said, “you did mention something earlier about being antsy and needing to kill something before you went stir-crazy, well here's your chance!”

Grimmjow glanced over at his mate and with a grin took off down the field right at the three beasts, the only ones still on the field was the two teams along with Grimmjow and Uryu, so Grimmjow didn't think twice crying out as he ran, “Grind, Pantera!” Before the dust kicked up by his transformation could settle the Arrancar had leapt atop of one of the three hollows with a roar and raked his claws along the more vulnerable points of it's hide. Within moments of him leaping at it the first one was dead and disappearing from sight, the other two seemed to be in shock so he easily dispatched a second one before he began playing around with the final one. Uryu watched as his hollow mate played with his prey, it was times like this that revealed just how much like a cat the former sixth Espada was and how lucky Uryu was that Grimmjow saw him as a potential mate instead of prey.

After allowing Grimmjow to have his fun for several minutes Uryu called out in a bemused tone, “that's enough Grimmjow, stop playing around and kill it already!”

With a slight pout the blue panther did as the Quincy bade and sliced through the other hollows mask, he stayed in his Resurrección form as he prowled back over to the group, both teams gaped in shock at how he looked now. His ears were now pointed and swept backward like a cats while his teeth had become like Hiruma's, sharp and predatory, his hands were black with clawed fingertips and his feet were now black clawed paws. His hair was now down past his knees while a long white tail, easily twice as long as he was tall, swayed lazily from side to side. His clothing had changed to white segmented armor that managed to provide solid protection with maximum flexibility and speed, he had blades protruding from his elbows and calves to allow him to take advantage of his entire body in a fight.

As he stopped in front of Uryu, he purred out, “thank you, my lovely mate, I needed that fight,” he then rubbed his jaw along Uryu's as his white tail wrapped around his mates waist and he placed his hands on his slim hips. Without thinking Uryu had chuckled lightly as he scratched the now taller male along his jaw all the way up to his ears and while one hand massaged the panther hollows scalp his other hand trailed down the hollows back and gently stroked the armored tail. The two actions by themselves weren't enough to make Grimmjow melt into a puddle of goo but combined they were deadly to Grimmjow's motor functions, as proven by how he melted against Uryu's slim frame as he purred up a storm.

As he stared down as his delighted and purring mate, the Quincy silently wondered if Renji was as awed as Uryu was whenever Ulquiorra relaxed around him in his Resurrección form. As the archer kept up the petting, the armor on both the tail and Grimmjow's body vanished from the panther until the only things to clue anyone in to the fact that he wasn't human was his ears, teeth, and tail. As the hand buried in Grimmjow's hair moved to caress his throat Uryu said softly, “I suppose that you all would like an explanation. Correct,” he asked as he glanced up at them in time to see all of them nodding so he sighed and said firmly, “alright, I'll do my best to explain but I'd rather do that inside one of your teams locker rooms. This is a bit too open for this kind of a discussion,” with that said he led the group over to the Devil Bat locker area of the stadium.


	22. Chapter Twenty-One: Of Gala's, Pranks and Tests!

**A/N: Sorry about the long time between updates but between being exhausted from work and the muses being quiet I've had no urge to write but no fear, the muses seem to have returned and hopefully I'll have the next chapter written and typed up by the 6th of the month! :smiles wanly at her readers before she yawns: Okay enjoy the chapter as I've been up since 9:00PM on November 30th and seeing as how it's 3:10 PM on the first of December I think I need to head to bed....I'll make the corrections if any are needed when I get home from work on Wendsay morning...  
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**Chapter Twenty-One:** _Of Gala's, Pranks and Tests!_

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“Are you sure that taking both of us with you is such a good idea,” Fabian called out over his shoulder as he adjusted the tie around his neck, beside him was his brother, silently cursing as he shaved.

 

Ryuken was leaning against the doorjamb of the bathroom as he said dryly, “I could care less than a wit as to what those idiots think about me bringing two men as my escorts and dates for this evening.” His eyes gleamed before he said in an offhand tone, “after all, it's not as if I'm ashamed of you like they all seem to think I am. Besides with both of you there I won't have to worry so much about keeping the vultures away,” he rolled his eyes as he turned away before he muttered, “damn women seem to think that me saying that I'm not interested is my way of playing hard to get...”

 

The red haired twins glanced at each other darkly at that and silently shared a resolution about not letting their mate out of their sight at the party. Unknown to their dear doctor, they had just made up their minds to publicly warn the first interloper to keep their hands off of _**their**_ doctor or the next one who did would be pulling back a stump. After all, it just wouldn't do to let anyone and everyone think that the two ex-aurors/Hit Wizards were pushovers. That is unless their mate was pouting or sulking about something, even though Ryuken would no doubt deny any and all accusations that he had done such a thing, then and only then did the pair cave faster than a souffle fell when a heavy weight dropped next to it.

 

Hence the reason that the pair were imitating very dressed up penguins instead of their normal attire, Fabian sighed lightly as he readjusted his tie one final time before he left the room to go put on his shoes, which had been charmed for comfort. If he had to dance them he planned to do so in comfort, as far as Ryuken had told them the Gala was being held in celebration of a Japanese team that played American Football that had won against an American Football team from America. Neither of the twins got just why the Hospital was holding the Gala but they went along with it for their mate's sake.

 

Fabian rose from the bed after tying his shoes, he glanced over at the bathroom in time to see Gideon rinsing the left over shaving foam off of his face. As he walked into the living room he snagged the jacket from off of the back of a chair and began to button it, Ryuken watched avidly as he did he rarely got to see his twins dress up like this. Gideon was buttoning his shirt sleeves as he exited the bedroom, Ryuken had gifted them with cufflinks for this very occasion, the cufflinks were decorated with the Quincy cross as well as a drawn bow with a cocked arrow. The twins had talked the doctor into a bonding ceremony and only informed their sister after the fact to avoid her taking over the planning of it so all three men now bore a wedding band on their left ring finger.

 

Two hours later, the two left Ryuken along briefly so as to retrieve some food and a drink for him, when they had left him alone he had been speaking with a young woman. They were discussing what Ryuken thought was necessary education for someone in an administrative position, the young woman was the manager of the Football team, the twins thought the name of the team rather amusing after all naming one-selves the Devil Bats was just plain amusing. Since the young woman showed absolutely no interest in their husband besides picking his brain over his opinion of education the pair had felt safe leaving their beloved archer alone with her. However, when they glanced over at him, they saw a woman standing far too close to him, both men gave quiet but vicious growls from deep in their throats. The two linebackers near them raised their eyebrows in shock when they saw the looks of annoyed anger in the pairs eyes, one took the plate of food while the other took the glass of sake before they stalked over to _**their**_ mate.

 

Yoichi raised his eyebrows in amazement over the woman's stupidity, he recognized the man as Uyru's father from a picture that the Quincy had shown them during that show and tell lecture, Uryu had casually mentioned that his father recently had a commitment ceremony with his twin lovers so he knew that she was treading on very thin ice. Yoichi glanced over at the buffet table in time to see a set of twins stalking their way, he sidled close enough to hear the doctor state in an icy cold tone, “no means no, I'm not interested in you seeing as how I'm happily married with a son.”

 

The woman scoffed at that before she trailed her fingers along his chest and purred, in what she no doubt thought was a sexy way but was absolutely disgusting to both Ryuken and Yoichi, “I bet that I could show you a far better time than you wife ever could...”

To her, and everyone else's, surprise the two men who they thought of as Ryuken's guards set down the food and drink on the table behind the pair. Both men had narrowed blue eyes and, taking after their beloved namesakes otherwise known as their nephews, took turns speaking in a ping pong fashion, “we highly suggest that you remove _your hands from_ _ **our**_ _doctor_ or have them forcibly removed. _Preferably by amputation_ but we're not that picky _before we commit defenestration with you and that,”_ they pointed at a window nearby, “window but it's your choice, _after all, you're not his type_ and no matter how much you whine or pout will change that.”

She took one look into their icy cold eyes and promptly removed her hands from Ryuken's chest before she fled the area, when she looked back at the white haired man she saw one of the two men snagging the aloof doctor for a kiss. Not that Ryuken was fighting all that much, actually he wasn't fighting the kiss at all in fact he was enthusiastically participating, once he was finished kissing the doctor his twin pulled him into a kiss while his brother watched smugly. She paled even further when she realized that the two men had been quite correct in that fact that she wasn't Doctor Ishida's type and never would or could be. As Gideon pulled back from the rather possessive claiming kiss he had murmured to Ryuken, “we can't leave you alone for five minutes without someone trying to poach what's ours.”

 

Fabian chuckled darkly, there was a very good reason that the Death Eaters had been terrified of the pair and it certainly wasn't because they were so light it made your teeth hurt, before he said with an equally dark tone, “she's lucky that all she did was touch you. If she had tried to steal a kiss then she would be dead and after all we have done for our superiors I rather doubt that we would have even gotten a slap on the wrist.”

 

The three men looked up at the chuckle from near them, Yoichi hadn't been able to hold it back when Fabian had said that, they saw a teenage boy with blond hair as well as sharp facial features. Ryuken raised an eyebrow at the teen inquiringly as he thought to himself, _'this boy reminds me of Grimmjow for some strange reason...'_

 

Upon seeing the raised eyebrow, the blond teen bowed to the trio as he said with a smile, “Yoichi Hiruma, I was just laughing over how well your husbands handled her. They handled her as well as Mamori handles my fan girls,” at that several of the people who he had dirt on gave him an odd look but those looks vanished when he stated absently with a confused look on his face, “I actually don't know why I have fan girls in the first place. I mean it's not like I try to get them, not to mention that I'm violent, I never verbalize my praise, I sue blackmail to get what I want and I have been called rather demonic...”

 

At that all three older men raised an eyebrow and thought to themselves absently, _'yep, definitely reminds me of Grimmjow and scarily enough a bit of Kushina, after all she's sometimes referred to as the Queen of Hell by her Quidditch team.'_ After a moment the twins bowed to the blond and once again pulled the ping-pong speaking trick that their nephews loved to do, “Fabian _and Gideon_ Ishida-Prewitt, _we would normally say_ at your service but _we have a funny feeling_ that it might not be wise to say _that to you._ After all, our mate is rather possessive,” at that the two men smirked at Ryuken and promptly got smacked on the back of their heads.

 

Yoichi snickered at how the two men pouted at the white haired man, who promptly ignored the pout since after over two years he had seen it many times before he introduced himself to the blond, “Ryuken Ishida. If I remember correctly then you've already met my son and his boyfriend,” the older man paused for a brief moment, “lover,” yet another pause before he said, “significant other or whatever he refers to Grimmjow as since he never bothered to inform me...”

 

Yoichi smirked at the older light haired man with unconcealed amusement, at that moment the young woman who had been with Ryuken when they had left returned. With a raised eyebrow she glanced between the four men before she asked the doctor, “has **my** Quarterback been bothering you, Ishida-San?” The twins raised their left eyebrows in unison at the possessive way she had called Yoichi hers and recalled his words over how she dealt with his fan girls in much the same manner that the twins had dealt with the interloper.

 

Perhaps most surprising was how the seemingly observant blond didn't even notice the possessive way she had stated that he was her quarterback or that if she indeed acted like they did with Ryuken's stalkers with his fan girls then she was acting like a spouse or lover whose place in their loved ones life was being questioned by a inferior being. At her question to the doctor Yoichi had scowled at her but before he could say anything he might later regret Ryuken had smiled at her before he said in a light tone, “actually , Yoichi-San wasn't bothering me at all.” His eyes gained a spark of humor as he said with slightly bigger smile, “in fact, I was about to comment that he vaguely reminds me of my sons boyfriend,” and before anyone could infer that he didn't approve of Grimmjow he said, “whom I thoroughly approve of and would gladly accept into the Clan if either he or my son wishes it.”

 

He then closed his eyes as he chuckled before he then commented wryly, “Grimmjow is rather good for my son, he gets Uryu to be more playful and less serious while Uryu calms him down. He has an infinite amount of patience when it comes to my son's habits and hobbies same with my son for Grimmjow's quirks. I've seen him watch Uryu for hours on end...even if all he's doing is practicing his archery or sewing some project of his,” Ryuken then glanced over at her with bemusement etched on his face before he stated sardonically, “it's not as if he really needs to practice the archery but he likes going through the drills when he's bored with studying.”

 

**####################################################################################**

 

Sirius watched in amusement as his goddaughter snuck out of the Slytherin Common Room with a gleeful grin on her face, he had the odd feeling that all four houses would be pranked tonight. Then again most of the teachers thought she had the right after all she'd done for the school and seeing how it was her last year, besides if she was anything like her parents, as well as considering that it was the one year where she would no longer have to worry about what old Moldy Voldy was up to anymore, she decided that it should be the one year that she pulled off the most claimed pranks. With that thought in mind Sirius walked back to his and Severus' rooms, which had been expanded when he gave birth to Cassiopeia, as he did he cheerfully ignored what would no doubt be quite a bit of mayhem that would be happening in the morning, he slipped into bed beside his husband who sleepily rolled over and pulled him close with a sleepy mumbled.

 

Three hours prior to her sneaking into the Slytherin Common Room, Kushina had been inspired by her reminiscing about a few remembered pranks that other people had pulled in various countries on numerous missions. Thus she had set ink and quill to paper to write a list of the pranks she wanted to pull of tonight on her fellow students, some of the pranks were ones that her uncle and aunt had pulled off others were by her great-uncle. After about twenty minutes of writing she finally set the writing utensils down and murmured the list she had just made softly to herself, as she did Minato's portrait had looked on with an amused smile he knew that when she got like this to stay well out of her way.

 

As he watched she had placed several things within a storage scroll, she then unsealed an older storage scroll to check on it's contents a small smug smile crept across her face as she removed each item and counted. She then placed the two dozen glow sticks back into the scroll along with all of her sharpies, her temporary tattoos along with the henna kit and stencils, the final thing she placed in that scroll was the ninja wire she used to make booby traps. In a separate scroll she put several gallons of neon paint along with two gallons of glow in the dark paint, she then put in the tie dye shirts and pants that she made herself; bell-bottoms only to make them more hippy-like while the last three objects she added had made Minato wince in sympathy: orajel, shaving cream and dozens upon dozens of make up kits.

 

The last time Kisuke had come to visit he had updated the portrait with his more recent memories, apparently Kushina had, shortly after the end of her forth year before Sirius' first visit to her, borrowed one of the Visoreds cars along with a hairdryer. She had taken both to a street that she knew that people sped on and parked it off to the side, while she wore a pair of Kensei's sunglasses that she had stolen when she was ten she pointed the hairdryer at the traffic. Everyone who spotted her slowed down immediately, a fact that still made her snicker, yet another time she had picked the door locks on twenty-five cars and using a pair of magnets each along with travel mugs, she stuck the mugs to the tops of the roofs.

 

That wasn't counting the prank she had pulled on several people when she had just turned thirteen, she had super-glued a pair of galleons to the sidewalk just beyond the Muggle repelling ward on the Leaky Calderon and snickered over how people kept trying to pick them up. Two weeks before that she had wandered out of the neighborhood that her relatives lived in and entered a shopping center, she wandered around the stores and placed several odd objects into peoples baskets that would not normally buy said objects. Such as condoms, lubricant and cucumbers, the largest she could find in fact, in the basket of a little old woman, however in the basket of man that was in his late teens to early twenties, it was hard for her to tell, she placed a package of depends, denture adhesive and cleanser along with some Preparation H cream, suppositories and economy size lubricant.

 

Thus when Minato had spotted her preparing her pranking supplies he kept his mouth shut unless he had a suggestion for her, he shook his head over how his wife had sneaked out of her rooms and then her common room in an exaggerated fashion. As she slammed back against the wall to glance around, in such a way that amused the portraits around to see it, Kushina pondered which house to hit first she would leave her own house for last that way she could go straight to bed afterward, finally she decided that she'd start at the bottom of the school and work her way up. When she reached the section of the wall that hid the entrance to the Slytherin Common room she kept going until she was fifteen feet beyond it. She was standing in front of the portrait of a beautiful woman with dancing violet eyes, Kushina bowed to the portrait as she had hissed in parseltongue, _“please open, Great One, as I wish to prank the hatchlings beyond thy portrait.”_ The portrait appeared to contemplate her request before consenting to it and swung open to reveal a passageway, a grin crossed her face before she bowed again to the portrait as she hissed, _“thank you for your assistance, Great One.”_ She then hurried into the corridor beyond the portrait and as the door swung shut behind her the red haired woman glanced between the two dorms as she contemplated which one to hit first.

 

Suddenly she grinned before she used the Shadow Clone Jutsu, she then sent a clone into the boys dorm she then snuck into the girls dorm, she skipped the first through third year dorms since those years would be a bit more sensitive about being pranked. Unlike the first three years the fourth through sixth years would find it insulting if she didn't prank all of them, the fourth through sixth years, minus Astoria Greengrass, received the usual camp pranks such as booby trapped beds and doors along with dye in the shampoo. She had replaced some of the girls hair styling products with superglue and for the few that used muggle toothpaste, or rather the wizarding equivalent of it, she replaced most of the paste with orajel.

 

However, for the seventh year girls, she had personal pranks to play on them, she had pranked Astoria by replacing all of Astoria's clothes with skin tight jeans, leather pants and skirts while her bras and some of her blouses were replaced with leather and lace corsets. By contrast her blouses were changed to tee shirts with sayings like ' _I'm mad, I'm bad and I have a wand. So stay the hell away from_ _ **my Dragon**_ _,_ ' while yet another tee shirt said, ' _save the world it's the only place with Ice cream, Chocolate and hot guys!'_ Kushina had the feeling that Astoria would like the shirt but be very angry about the corsets, at least at first before she got a good look at the effect they most likely would have on Draco, that is if he was anything like her own husband.

 

When she ducked into the room, Pansy was lying on her back snoring lightly, the pug faced girl was lucky that Astoria had been able to talk Draco out of completely dissolving the arrangement between the Parkinson family and the Malfoy family. Instead of the large sum he would have to have paid normally, all that Pansy's father had to do was forbid his daughter to have any further contact with the Malfoy Lord beyond what was necessary for social or school reasons. However that wouldn't save her from Kushina's wrath, the red haired woman smirked when she noticed that Pansy was wearing a silk nightgown, more at home during Victorian times instead of the modern age. Using skills long ago acquired, first a Shinobi of considerable skill then again as a Shinigami with easily bored subordinates and then yet again as a Trouble Attractant otherwise known as the Girl-Who-Lived now known as the Defeater of Voldemort, she snuck over and began to apply heavy makeup onto the other girls face.

 

Personally, Kushina thought that her new title was utterly ridiculous and the very first time that the Daily Prophet used it in an article she had sent a rather derisive howler to them, which unlike usual howlers she hadn't shouted instead her voice was eerily calm as she had stated in a cold tone, _**“my proper name is Lady Kushina Urahara. Co-Head of the most Ancient and Royal house of Noir, Head of the most Ancient and Brave house of Gryffindor, Head of the most Ancient and Cunning house of Slytherin, Secondary Heir to the most Ancient and Noble houses of Potter and Lupus now known as the house of Lupin. Therefor you shall only ever refer to me as either Lady Urahara, Lady Noir or Lady Gryffindor-Slytherin, if you refuse to do so and I see that utterly stupid title I the papers again I'll make you wish I had only fired you since Father did turn control over the shares of your paper to me when I turned seventeen. Have a nice day!”**_

 

The Daily Prophet had quickly retracted the article and printed an apology to the high ranking noble, they had used the same spell they used to automatically correct the name of the Dark Lord with his hyphenated name on Kushina new but hated title, now if anyone wrote the new title the printer would automatically correct it to one of her acceptable titles. As she placed the finishing touches to Pansy's new makeup job Kushina mentally snickered, she then spelled the seventh year Slytherin so she wouldn't notice the make up until someone else pointed it out to her. Kushina wanted to see how long it would take before someone to mention it to her before a teacher did or if it would have to be a teacher to point it out to her, Kushina then left the other girls room and ducked into Tracy Davis' room.

 

Sixteen minutes later she strolled back out of the room, which was now decorated with new age hippy interior and the girls wardrobe now contained bell-bottom pants with a rather impressive array of tie dye shirts that wouldn't have looked out of place during the sixties in America. The next room two rooms got the same treatment as Tracy's did, but Daphne room got the same treatment as Astoria except her shirts boldly declared, _**'I may be the Ice Queen but you're still a lowly peasant and unworthy of my time.'**_ Another stated simply: _**'I'm not the center of the universe so stop orbiting my gravity!'**_

 

After another hour and twenty six minutes, Kushina exited the Slytherin Common Room as she strolled up the stairs to the Hufflepuff Common room Kushina smirked to herself, _'it's a good thing that Lee is taking Theo on a date tomorrow. At least Theo won't have to worry about proper clubbing clothing now!'_ Two hours after ducking into the Hufflepuff Dorm the red head reemerged, once again she had a smug smirk on her face that caused Donovan to take one look at her before he promptly turned around and went to find his Lady Helena.

 

Her gold eyes glinted with the same air of mischief that her parents and godfather got when they were planning a very distinct bit of humor, she then approached the brass raven doorknocker. It promptly intoned, “Dead on the field lie ten soldiers in white, felled by three eyes, black as night. What happened?”

 

Kushina snorted in amusement at that since only a muggle raised or Muggleborn witch or wizard would even figure it out before she said, “a strike was thrown in ten pin bowling,” she then entered the open doorway as soon as it was open enough to fit her. Once again she ignored the first through third year dorms but gleefully pranked all the others, but especially the ones who had either bullied Luna or ignored the bullying taking placed on the now sixth year Ravenclaw. Since the house of Hufflepuff was seen by the other three houses as the rather naive and innocent house she had pranked them via their appearances, she had given them all skimpy, Gothic or punk rock wardrobes. All of which had been spelled against transfiguration, thanks to her odd friendship with Tonks, Kushina knew that not all of the 'Puff's would be horrified over their new wardrobes but instead would take the opportunity to wear them with glee, such as Hannah Abbott, the seventh year had been the one to suggest her and Neville's outfits during that costume ball last year not Neville like everyone assumed. She knew that the girls who bullied Luna prided themselves on their appearances so she pranked them in much the same fashion that she had Pansy, except that their makeup would only come off if they looked outside of the box for how to clean it off. For the prank on Luna she had changed all of the blonds blouses to tee shirts with various sayings on them such as, _**'the voices in my head think you're crazy,'**_ or _**'I know that I'm howling mad but my boyfriend likes me that way,'**_ and one of the last ones was, _**'I'm crazy as a loon... Why thank you!'**_

 

The pranks that she could hardly wait to do was against her own house-members and so when she slipped back into her room she had been grinning like Gin used to do, she was so pleased with herself that she unknowingly ignored the pair of summons near the fireplace. When she came back into the room she finally noticed the pair and said in a surprised tone, “Mikala, Sari, this is a surprise, what brings the two of you by,” she asked as she padded over to her favorite chair. As she settled down into it her Zanpakuto appeared near her, Anubis was sitting at her left side in his full Jackal form with his head on her knee while Thanatos was leaning against the back of her chair. His arms were resting on the top with his right arm supporting his left which was propping up his chin as he stared curiously down at the two summons that rarely ever came to see their mistress while he waited for them to answer their mistresses question.

 

The cheetah glanced at the snake before she asked wryly, “do you want to go first or shall I?”

 

After a few moments of though the snake hissed, “you can go first.”

 

The cheetah nodded before she turned back to Kushina and began reporting with an amused glint to her golden eyes, “the young master recently challenged three pre-Genins to see if they can catch a glimpse of his Sensei's face.” At that her eyebrows shot up, from what she could gather, Kakashi wore his mask now mostly out of habit, grief and guilt as well as to prank the village of Konoha at large. The grief was over his father's death while the guilt was from having never showed his teammates what he truly looked like as well as for even thinking that looking like his father was something to be ashamed or disappointed about.

 

“He gave them only one week to accomplish their task,” the cheetah paused slightly before he continued with the cat equivalent of a smirk as he said, “they failed to do so of course, and now they have to behave for their academy Sensei, who happens to be a certain Dolphin, until the end of the Chuunin Exams!” Kushina snickered with glee before she motioned for her to continue with her report, once he was certain that she was fine he continued by saying, “Naruto has made a friend,” upon seeing the confusion on her mistresses face, after all wasn't it a good thing that Naruto made a friend, she clarified, “a newly wed woman who had come to Konoha with her husband as a honeymoon. It seems that she likes things that go boom so her husband thought that it would be perfect wedding present to give his wife the opportunity to see the Chuunin exam. She's given Naruto-Chan quite a few new ideas for both pranks and methods of explosions,” she chuckled as she said with an amused tone, “you would likely get along with her very well sine she even vaguely resembles a female version of Naruto but not quite since she's missing the rather distinctive characteristics of the Uzumaki Clan but I wouldn't be surprised if she's a descendant of an allied clan...”

 

Kushina's lips twitched as she contemplated Kakashi's likely amusement over Naruto befriending a person with such a similar personality to his own, bemused resignation was likely to be one reaction by many of the village when she thought about it. She was just glad that the woman was already married or her son was likely to have gotten the idea that the two of them should date to maximize their time that they could blow stuff up, then again she could be wrong about that since the snakes turn to report was next and it had a surprise in store for her.

 

Her eyebrows shot up in shock when the snake reported not only the adoption of Neji and Hinata into the Slytherin Clan but also due to the fact that her many times great-grandmother was the adoptive mother, A.K.A. Salazar's adoptive Lamia mother. However she just about fell out of her seat while both of her Zanpakuto stared in shock when the snake reported that Naruto had not only found a weapon that her Aunt Kimiko had forged shortly before her death but he had gifted said pole-arm to Neji Slytherin formerly of the Hyuga clan.

 

The two summons, two Zanpakuto and one portrait watched in amusement when it dawned on her that her son, unintentionally and unknowingly, had begun to court the former Hyuuga branch member. She idly wondered if Kisuke would be amused as she currently was since a weapon is very much a classic Uzumaki courting gift, she had given Minato his signature Kunai that he used for his Flying Thunder God move. Her father had gifted her mother with several copies of rare scrolls on genjutsu attacks while her Uncle Arashi had merely given her Aunt Kimiko the metals she used she had to create the amalgamation of metals that she used to create the very metal she preferred to make her weapons out of. Kushina had gifted Sakumo with a twin to his Tanto, it was a backup weapon that Sakumo had hidden in a seal on the back of his neck, as far as she knew it had still been in the seal when he died and his body was cremated.

 

However, she now wondered if it had ever been there at all, she shook her head in idle amusement as she listened to the snake's report on how the Kazekage's eldest son was apparently courting Hinata via the act of teaching her how to wield puppets, Suna style. Which, considering how possessive the village of Suna was of it's puppetry was rather astonishing in and of itself, this was with her completely ignoring that Kankuro was distantly related to the Uzumaki clan, but not so surprising if she did consider it, after all Godric had gifted Salazar with a pair of twin blades, her serpent speaking ancestor had apprised her of that information when she asked how he had been courted by Godric.

 

As she halfway listened to the report Kushina idly wondered just how Temari and Gaara would court their chosen mate, according to the serpent Gaara seemed to have a crush on Lee while Temari was absolutely fascinated by Shikamaru Nara. If she had to guess then Gaara would take advantage of his sand shield to court Lee since as a Taijutsu user Lee used his own body as a weapon and the Sand Shield would provide Lee the perfect opportunity to improve his own prowess. Temari, on the other hand, would more than likely be stumped as to how to offer the rather pragmatic and lazy Shikamaru a weapon as a courting gift, as she pondered the situation that her young distant relative had found herself in Kushina idly wondered mentally to herself, 'hmm. _I think Aunt Kimi left a few notes in the Konoha Uzumaki Clan Library that she obtained from her Nara friend about that jutsu she used to protect her civilian husband...'_

 

Her gold eyes grew hazy as she strained to recall exactly what the scroll contained, her eyes suddenly lit up as she remembered vaguely what the scroll had been about, it had contained the very jutsu that the female Nara Head had invented so her shadow could protect her husband should he fall into danger, it gave her shadow a bit of sentience at least where her husband was concerned. What Haruka Nara had not considered when she created the jutsu was that it might go both ways, because if Kushina's memory of her Aunt's tales was correct then Haruka's husband's shadow had defended her on numerous occasions because the jutsu's effects were permanent. A fact that had amused her friends and family, however only one person had been taught the jutsu that she had invented and that one person had been Kimiko Jashin, wife of Arashi Senju, the silver haired woman had refused to part with her former Clan name because she wanted to make sure that at least one Clan member was known for her honor. Although she wished to be remembered as a Jashin and not a Senju most of Konoha's enemies had wrote her name down to be Kimiko Senju nee Jashin instead of her preferred address, besides her keeping her maiden name allowed people to refer to the pair of them by their last names rather than their first names.

 

The red head then rubbed her brow, both of the summons watched her with curiosity on their faces, Kushina strained to recall the particular scrolls location after several moments it came to her. The scroll had been placed on the fifth shelf of the ninth bookcase of the defensive jutsu section of the Konoha branch of the Uzumaki family library archive, and it was an archive since it contained practically every ninja technique that had ever been invented. Idly she made a mental note to either send her son a note about the scroll or to visit him and tell him about it herself to suggest that he and his team go through that section before the start of the second part of the Chuunin exam.

 

After all, the jutsu that the scroll contained was one of the most treasured and sacred gifts anyone could give a Nara, their very shadow which would protect the Nara even after their death, according to tales that her Aunt Kimiko had told her as a young girl the civilian husband died before his wife of an illness that no one knew how to cure, his wife Haruka went into semi retirement and invented the cure to the illness but far to late to save her husband she invented it to prevent other woman and men from losing their beloved spouses. When she went on a mission she had been startled when her husband's shadow had appeared and killed an enemy that tried to sneak up on her, those who had seen it had assumed that the Nara had been the one to command the shadow to attack her assailant but Haruka had known otherwise and realized that her husband was protecting her even after death. If young Temari was anything like what the cheetah described her as then she'd preform the jutsu without thinking twice about it once she was reassured by Kimihiro that the scroll was indeed written by his beloved Aunt Kimiko who had known Haruka Nara quite well.

 

**####################################################################################**

 

As his older, now much younger, sister pranked the four houses of her school, Kimihiro was having a glass of Sake with several Shinobi, of which included: Ibiki, Zabuza, Inochi, Shikaku, Kakashi, Iruka, Baki, Akasuka along with Dara and her husband, _Sori_. Those who had known Kushina well were trading stories with each other of her childhood and exploits during her career as a ninja while those who had either never met her or who had not known her that well were listening with rapt attention. Kimihiro grinned at the tale of his sisters by now rather famed prank on the entirety of Iwa, something which had gained her the grudging acceptance of it's Kage and people.

 

Iruka was sitting next to Kakashi, well it was more like he was draped along the silver haired Jounin's right side but who really cared about that, a slight flush colored his cheekbones from the drinks he had already consumed along with his laughter over some of the never before heard pranks. Ibiki on the other hand was chuckling over a certain tale that Inochi had just finished telling, Ibiki's left hand was threaded through Zabuza's hair. As his hand carded through the former Mist nin's hair, Ibiki stated with a soft smile, “Kushina-Sensei always did love a good prank or two, right, Shikaku,” he asked his old teammate with a smug grin, the lazy Nara merely rolled his eyes in amused tolerance at the tease the scarred Jounin made at him.

 

The scarred Nara then nodded his head before he said with a wry twist to his lips and a bemused tone to his voice, “true enough, Ibiki, true enough,” he paused for a brief moment as if he was considering something before he retorted, “but her son's worse than she ever was!” A momentary lapse of silence fell over the group as those who had experienced both Uzumaki's senses of humor first hand quietly compared the son to his mother before they gave their unanimous agreement on who was worse one of the pair to be pranked by. Kushina had been brilliant with pranks when it came to sheer creativity, pulling off and getting away with, or at least doing the prank with style, but Naruto outmatched her with his sheer nerve and creativity as well as how he invented jutsu just for the purpose of a single prank.

 

After a moment more of silence, Iruka raised his glass as he stated in a solemn tone, “to Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Hot Habanero of Konoha and her beloved husband, Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash of Konoha, may the two of you smile with pride over your son's achievements from wherever you are...” As the rest of the room raised their glasses in agreement with the Chuunin, two people suddenly sneezed; Kushina shook her head but continued with her pranks while Kisuke rubbed at his nose and muttered a reminder to have someone dust his office before going back to work. The pair were long since used to the sudden bout of sneezing and merely passed it off as a by product of their environment even if said environment was microscopically clean to where a surgeon would be perfectly happy to perform heart surgery in it.

 

Kakashi had then sighed before he said with a look of slight disbelief on his face, “can you believe that the Chuunin Exam starts in less than a week,” his statement was rhetorical since he then smiled at them from behind his improvised veil as he chirped happily, “my kids are terribly excited by this.”

 

Akasuka snorted quietly to himself as Baki wryly said with a lilt of amusement to his voice, “so are my little brats, no offense 'Suka but your kids are brats to most everyone the only person they obey without argument is Sasuke-Chan.”

 

The red haired Kazekage waved his hand as he muttered, “none taken, Baki, I know very well that my kids obey only Sasuke and the Kazekage without argument,” he rolled his eyes as he smirked wryly he said, “after all they take after me and I do the same damn thing.” He then held up his fingers as he said with a grin, “I only obey orders from two people, and those people are Sasuke Uchiha and my Lord Kazekage,” despite how much he had come to trust the people in the room Akasuka was having too much fun to tell any of them that he was the Kazekage just yet. If he didn't somehow give it away during the Chuunin Exam then they would find out when the time came to promote the people who made it to Chuunin, especially if Sasuke graduated to that level since he wouldn't be able to help himself from congratulating the teen on the accomplishment or if Sasuke failed then he would more than likely console the teen over it and encourage him to try the next exam.

 

Baki had spoken up when his Kage fell silent in order to state with a smug grin, “I have never before seen Kankuro as excited as he is right now for the test to begin, I think he's looking forward to being able to show off his puppet collection ever since Sasuke had given him complete access along with the permission to take, improve or build puppets from the Uchiha armory.” Baki shrugged as he glanced over at Kimihiro as he said, “Sasuke had muttered something about not letting the puppets go to waste and since Kankuro was now an Uchiha by blood adoption it would be fitting to allow the red head access to it. After all there hasn't been an Uchiha Puppeteer in the family since over a hundred years before his grandmother's birth.”

 

Sori listened intently as Akasuka suddenly commented, “Temari is just as excited as Kankuro, she keeps muttering to herself about proving someone wrong about something. Gaara on the other hand is alternating between excited and worried,” as he had spoken the red haired man glanced around the table until his gaze settled briefly upon the man across from him. However much the Kazekage tried to dismiss the way the other man seemed to be so familiar he just couldn't quite shrug it off, Akasuka watched _Sori_ and his blond mischief loving wife, _Dara_ as he continued by saying, “he is excited over the chance to show off in front of his Mother and sparring partner but he's worried that he'll end up against either or both of them during the tournament...”

 

The brown haired blue eyed man across from him had shaken his head as he stated, with his arm across the back of his wife's chair, “if he does end up against Lee-San then the match will likely end in a draw. I rather doubt that either of the two boys will go all out against anyone outside of a real fight, but especially not with each other.” _Sori_ smirked wryly before he had muttered in a bemused tone, “after all since the two of them spar against each other all the time it's extremely unlikely that they don't know just what each others movements say about their next attack. Not to mention that the last time I saw them sparring against one another Lee was almost fast enough to get past the Sand Defense but not fast enough besides Lee won't take off his weights in a mere bout for an exam especially against Gaara. Of course the main reason I think that their match will end in a draw is due to the fact that they genuinely like each other,” he held up one hand as he said, “Gaara simply doesn't have the will or inclination to hurt Lee to the point that Lee would be unable to continue. But on the other hand,” he held up his remaining hand as he said, “Lee doesn't have the inclination to hurt Gaara to the point that he can't continue on in the fight even if he could get past the Sand Shield.”

 

At that _Dara_ took over for her husband, which actually was true since the pair had made a brief stop for a ceremony but that was neither here nor there, she had snorted before she said with an amused tone, “with how well those to have begun to read each other just imagine what they would be like as a team... In fact I wouldn't be all that surprised if they were among the most formidable partners if Suna and Konoha chose to allow them to be partnered despite their separate villages and thus loyalties, after all Suna has recently proposed a new treaty that will be signed when the Kazekage gets here for the Chuunin Exam.”

 

Shikaku eventually nodded in agreement with the blond woman as he stated with more than a bit of amusement in his voice, “true enough and young Temari is starting to understand just how my son thinks, which is quite frankly terrifying for him since he thinks that she's more scary than his mother. Those two would also end up being a very good team if we could pair them together as partners,” he paused for a brief moment to think before he stated with a smug smirk, “same with young Hinata-Chan and Kankuro.” He then glanced over at the red headed man as he stated with a touch of irony to his tone, “no offense but your eldest son is damn protective of her. Not to mention that the very simple fact he's willing to teach her the trade secrets of his craft that your village so jealously guards is kind of telling...”

 

Akasuka huffed a soft laugh at that before he said with an understanding smile, “I'm more than aware of my son's affection for the Slytherin heiress,” his green eyes glinted with amusement before he quipped, “my beloved children have already decided which among them will be my heir. Both Kankuro and Temari feel that they wouldn't be suited for the position while Gaara has shown more than a passing interest in having my job when I either retire or die. I've already made sure that the Suna council knows that I want Gaara to take my place in the event of either possible incident,” he gave them all a sardonic smile as he said wryly, “I'm hoping for the first but I'm prepared for the second eventuality.”

 

Baki snorted before he said with a stubborn glint to his eyes, “quite frankly 'Suka, it would be highly unlikely that it will be anything but the first if your children and Sasuke-Chan have a say in the matter.” At that comment everyone but the two Suna Jounins snorted in amusement but nodded in agreement, after all it was plain that his children adored him and Heaven help anyone who tried to hurt their Father. As far as Sasuke was concerned, it was undeniable, except where some of his fan girls were concerned and even most of them had gotten a clue by now, that the last Uchiha more than adored the older man.

 

Plus it was more than plain to everyone that Akasuka adored the last Uchiha to bits since he was almost always with the teen to scare off the Uchiha's fan girls, of course the way that he indulged Sasuke's fussing over him and his children was a big clue. The adoption just about screamed just how much Akasuka trusted Sasuke, his reaction to the incident where they found Sasuke singing for the three Suna siblings merely cemented the idea in even the most stubborn naysayer's minds. It was plain to everyone that witnessed it that Akasuka was utterly smitten with the teen and was also firmly in denial about it, Inochi leaned back in his chair as he contemplated the red haired man. As he did he recalled that day with a hint of fond amusement to his thoughts, only a few of the spectators had figured out that Akasuka was more than merely smitten with the teen but was in fact head over heels in love, most of them were absolutely clueless to the fact.

 

**FBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFBFB**

 

Several people had started visiting the public areas of the Uzumaki compound when it became well known that the grandson of the first Hokage was living there as well as the fact that the last Uchiha was a frequent visitor to the compound. So when during a lull in the conversation, the beat of a song drifted across the courtyard where Sasuke had been watching the Sabaku siblings practice more than a few of them were curious enough to go take a look. When the group arrived there they found tha the four had been joined by Naruto and Sakura, who had brought Sai with her apparently, the artist was leaning against a wall watching team seven with amusement dancing in his dark eyes. The three Konoha Genins were dancing to the beat that seemed to be coming from a small orb that was pulsing with light along to the beat the light appeared to be changing colors every time the beat changed.

 

Sasuke was wearing an outfit that Akasuka had bought him, which consisted of a t-shirt with the saying of, _'there is no such thing as Overkill, there is only we're out of shuriken and I need more Kunai!'_ and a pair of tan pants. However it was how Sasuke was singing that caught everyone's attention, he was dancing to the beat as he sang,

“You feel like a candle in a hurricane

Just like a picture with a broken frame

Alone and helpless

Like you've lost your fight

But you'll be alright, you'll be alright,” he paused for a moment before he sang in a louder tone,

“Cause when push comes to shove

You taste what you're made of

You might bend, till you break

Cause its all you can take

On your knees you look up

Decide you've had enough

You get mad you get strong

Wipe your hands shake it off

Then you Stand, Then you stand

Life's like a novel

With the end ripped out

The edge of a canyon

With only one way down

Take what you're given before its gone

Start holding on, keep holding on,” as he sang he was staring at Gaara and his siblings as if telling them to take the song to heart. His eyes flicked over to where Akasuka was standing as he continued to sing,

“Cause when push comes to shove

You taste what you're made of

You might bend till you break

Cause it's all you can take

On your knees you look up

Decide you've had enough

You get mad, you get strong

Wipe your hands, shake it off

Then you stand, then you stand

 

Everytime you get up

And get back in the race

One more small piece of you

Starts to fall into place

Oh

 

Cause when push comes to shove

You taste what you're made of

You might bend till you break

Cause it's all you can take

On your knees you look up

Decide you've had enough

You get mad, you get strong

Wipe your hands, shake it off

Then you stand, then you stand.” It was obvious to the watchers that they had come at the beginning of the song but were still curious as to what the hell that orb was, if they bothered to ask Kimihiro the red head would have told them that it was a combination of a specific type of crystal that grew in Whirlpool and a set of seals.

 

“Please sing another song Mother,” Gaara asked softly while his siblings nodded in agreement and Sasuke glanced over at his teammates before he nodded his acceptance to the request.

 

A different beat started playing from the orb but instead of it just being Sasuke singing Naruto and Sakura joined in this time as the three bopped around the orb with grins on their faces.

 

“I been knocked down so many times

Counted out 6, 7, 8, 9

Written off like some bad deal

If you're breathing you know how it feels

Call it karma, call it luck

Me, I just don't give a,” Sakura drew out the a before she all but shouted out the next part,

“Bounce, Bounce

Nothing's gonna keep me down

Bounce, Bounce

Stand up, shout it out

Bounce, Bounce

I play hard, I play to win

Count me out, count me in

I'll be bouncing back again,” Akasuka grinned as he watched the trio bopping to the beat continuously as they sang.

 

To everyone's surprise the three were singing in perfect sync and despite the fact that they hadn't worked together before becoming a Genin team they were able to know just when the next word was coming out of the other two's mouths. Such as demonstrated by them belting out,

“This ain't no game; I play it hard

Kicked around, cut, stitched and scarred

I'll take the hit but not the fall

I know no fear, still standing tall

You can call it karma, call it luck

Me, I just don't give a

 

Bounce, Bounce

Nothing's gonna keep me down

Bounce, Bounce

Stand up, shout it out

Bounce, Bounce

I play hard, I play to win

Count me out, count me in

I'll be bouncing back again

 

Bounce!,” the three grinned at each other while a guitar was being played then they all yelled out the next part,

“Bring it on, I like it rough

In your face, I call your bluff

It ain't karma, it ain't luck

Me, I just don't give a,” the three then lowered their voices as they sang out the chorus again,

“Bounce, Bounce

Nothing's gonna keep me down

Bounce, Bounce

Stand up, shout it out

Bounce, Bounce

I play hard, I play to win

Count me out, count me in

I'll be bouncing back again

 

Bounce, Bounce

Nothing's gonna keep me down

Bounce, Bounce

Stand up, shout it out

Bounce, Bounce

I play hard, I play to win

Count me out, count me in

I'll be bouncing back again.” They ended the song with a bout of laughter which was shared by the Sand siblings and Sai, the dark eyed teen was watching Sakura with bemusement in his eyes it never failed to amuse him how the stubborn pink haired girl would be so playful with her teammates and now adoptive brothers.

 

Akasuka shook his head in amusement as his gaze switched back and forth between his children to the teen they all called Mother, Sasori caught the smile that flashed across his face as he stared at Sasuke who was dancing with the grace that came from long practice of Taijutsu. All the sudden a song came on that had Sasuke grinning while his two teammates merely stepped back to join Sai and the Sand siblings respectively, as the song came on Sasuke's brow furrowed as if he was struggling to remember how the song went but apparently he figured it out since he started singing it.

 

“I told you on the day we wed

I was gonna love you 'til I's dead

Made you wait 'til our wedding night

That's the first and the last time I'll wear white,” Sasuke slowly opened his dark eyes and stared into Akasuka's wide green ones, but the Kazekage couldn't tear his gaze away from the Uchiha's as he sang,

“So if the ties that bind ever do come loose

Tie 'em in a knot like a hangman's noose

Cause I'll go to heaven or I'll go to hell

Before I'll see you with someone else

 

Put me in the ground

Put me six foot down

And let the stone say:

 

"Here lies the girl whose only crutch

Was loving one man just a little too much"

If you go before I do

I'm gonna tell the gravedigger that he better dig two,” as the song played out the beat between the lyrics Sasuke was standing still unlike the previous songs where he had been bouncing to the beats. And when the song picked up on the next set of lyrics Sasuke was ready as he sang,

“Well,

It won't be whiskey, won't be meth

It'll be your name on my last breath

If divorce or death ever do us part

The coroner will call it a broken heart

 

So put me in the ground

Put me six foot down

And let the stone say:

 

"Here lies the girl whose only crutch

Was loving one man just a little too much"

If you go before I do

I'm gonna tell the gravedigger that he better dig two

 

Dig two

Ooh, ooh

 

I took your name when I took those vows

I meant 'em back then and I mean 'em right now,

Oh, right now

 

If the ties that bind ever do come loose

If "forever" ever ends for you

If that ring gets a little too tight

You might as well read me my last rites

 

And let the stone say:

 

"Here lies the girl whose only crutch

Was loving one man just a little too much"

If you go before I do

Gonna tell the gravedigger that he better dig, uh!

 

Heavy stone right next to mine,

We'll be together 'til the end of time

Don't you go before I do,

I'm gonna tell the gravedigger that he better dig two

 

I told you on the day we wed

I was gonna love you 'til I's dead,” Akasuka swallowed tightly as he thought to himself, _'Sasuke-chan doesn't mean this song that way, in any case he's too young to even consider me as a potential lover! So get it out of your head besides you're the Kazekage there is no way that Konoha will even entertain letting the last Uchiha leave their village to stay with you in Suna...no matter how much you would love for that to happen.'_

 

While Sasuke was singing Kimihiro had smiled in fond remembrance as he recalled how his Aunt, for who he was partially named after, had sang the song during one of her visits to Whirlpool with his Uncle 'Rashi. As he recalled his Uncle had laughed when she had sang it playfully but even as a child he could tell that his beloved Uncle adored his wife and that for the pair of them the words of the song held true. Even if by some miracle one of the pair had survived the massacre of Whirlpool they wouldn't have lived very long before dying of a broken heart, when the pairs bodies had been found they had been lying right next to each other with his uncle reaching out for his Aunt's hand.

 

When the two brothers and their wives were burned it had been decided that the couples would be burned on the same funeral pyre, the task of arranging their bodies on the pyres was a task that both Kimihiro and Kushina wouldn't allow anyone else to preform. Kushina had arranged their Aunt Kimiko's and Uncle Arashi's bodies while he did the same for their parents, Kushina had placed them so that Kimiko's head rested on Arashi's shoulder and Arashi's arm cradled her close with his hand on her hip. Kimihiro hadn't been able to stop himself from placing his father's hand over his mother's abdomen, the main reason as to why he had refused to settle in Konoha after Whirlpools destruction was because he had known that his mother was pregnant when she died but he never told Kushina so she could be spared the pain and guilt at not being home during the attack.

 

He glanced over at Akasuka, the clan head was surprised to see a strange expression on the face of his fellow red haired Kage, yes he was perfectly aware of the fact that Akasuka was the Kazekage since Kushina had informed him of that little gem besides his nephew wouldn't keep that a secret from him for too long. Before he could try to figure out the expression it quickly vanished from sight and Kimihiro silently began to try to figure out just what in the world might that expression mean.

 

 

**E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B. E.F.B.**

 

 

Inochi was jolted out of his memories when Kakashi stated in a smug tone, “my kids will make it to the third exam, I don't know if they'll be promoted to chuunin but they'll make it that far at least. After all, they're smart, stubborn and they can take care of themselves,” he ended with most of them giving him an odd look over that since it was more than obvious, to them at least, that team Seven's Genins were already Chuunin in level but whether they were mentally ready was the question. Ino and Sakura were back to being friends again instead of rivals, especially since it was blatant that Sakura liked Sai and thus wasn't mooning over Sasuke anymore. Inochi had warned his daughter that he rather doubted that the Uchiha would even glance at her without any annoyance even without Sakura trying to get his attention. Ino, of course, didn't listen to him, she was sure that Sasuke would notice her romantically sooner or later but most of Sasuke's fan girls seemed to have given up when they noticed how Sasuke acted with the Sabaku family.

 

Baki was sitting next to Kimihiro as he was wont to do lately, his dark eyes flicked over toward his Kage as he stated softly, “according to the messages that the Kazekage had us pass to the Hokage the treaty between our villages will stand so long as he is Kage and so long as his chosen successor is Kage.” He smirked subtly before he said, “I'm sure he could be convinced to allow the pairing of some Suna shinobi with a Konoha partner if they work well enough together...” Baki found it extremely amusing that very few people seemed to be aware that Akasuka was the Kazekage, didn't they realize that Suna's Jinchuuriki was the third born child of the current Kazekage...apparently not.

 

Akasuka had already sent out orders back to Suna to have one of his guards for the exam be Daisuka Hadachi, the Jounin preferred to be called 'Suka by his friends instead of Dai. Akasuka knew that everyone would think that it was him behind Daisuka's mask and not him since he had ordered for Daisuka to pose as him while journeying to Konoha from Suna, due to the potential threat of attack by Sound for withdrawing their support he also ordered the group to leave five days earlier than scheduled.

 

 _'Still,'_ Baki thought to himself wryly, ' _I would have thought that the Hokage would have recognized that Gaara is Shukaku's Jinchuuriki or Akasuka-Sama's voice,'_ his mental monologue paused as a thought occurred to him, _'then again he hasn't really heard Akasuka-Sama speak! Of course he hasn't recognized his voice and since our Lord Kazekage has always kept his hat on along with his robes while out of the village no one except for a very few outside of our village even knows what he looks like!'_ Baki blinked a bit at that odd thought before he mentally muttered to himself, _'that's actually rather funny now that I think about it, especially since Sasuke-Chan never cared if Akasuka-Sama was dressed as the Kazekage or as himself whenever she...he...I'll never get that straight in my own mind at least I refer to Sasuke aloud by whatever gender the Uchiha is currently in or I'd be in big trouble...but still Sasuke never gave a darn as to what he was wearing whenever Akasuka had to be dragged off for a meal or for some odd thing that Sasuke wanted him to do...'_

 

With that thought in mind he leaned back in his seat and listened with closed eyes as the men around him debated on the likely outcome of the first test of the exam. If his eyes had been opened he would have seen Zabuza's lips quirk up in a bemused smirk as Ibiki boldly stated that at least half of the participants would fail at the tenth question of his test. Baki grinned when he heard Shikaku retort, “with you as the proctor I bet over half of them will purposefully fail just to get away from you and with Anko as the Proctor of the second exam I rather doubt that if we have a prelim round for the third test it will be due to a minor miracle!”

 

Inochi laughed at that before he teased his old teammate, “don't say that in front of Anko-Chan or she'll get smug for days on end!”

 

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto stood in front of two Genin's who were blocking the way to the next floor where the test was going to be held, normally they wouldn't even bother with this but Kakashi had mentioned that Ibiki had made a boast the previous night about how many people he'd get to drop out of the class. Thus in order to insure that they did end up having a prelim they decided to make sure all of the teams milling around on this floor made it up to the classroom where the test would be held. After several long moments of staring at the two boys Sasuke had crossed his arms over his chest as he sneered, “as humorous as your little game may be to the two of you, I would much rather go up to the third floor for the exam. After all, the genjutsu the two of you are using over the sign is rather weak and only an idiot would be stupid enough to not notice,” at that most of team Sevens fellow Genin's sweat-dropped before they glared at the teen. “So you can either move aside or I'll let Sakura here play with you until she's bored, it's your choice really,” he ended with an idly tone and since Sakura was playing the part of a weak girly girl that got by on her teammates support she played the part perfectly.

 

She had scrunched up her nose as she whined, which thanks to hanging out with the three while waiting for the exams to start three of the teams along with Shikamaru were very well aware was a fake, “but Sasuke, I just got my nails done,” which wasn't a lie she did just got them done but both Sasuke or Naruto were willing to do a touch up for her, “I don't want to break them!”

 

“Then don't use your hands to fight with,” Sasuke drawled out lazily as he glanced over at her slyly before he said with a falsely conversational tone, “after all, didn't Sai-San give you a pair of nunchaku as a ' _congratulations, you've blown up a building by accident,'_ prize?”

 

Her multi-colored eyes lit up as she stared at the now nervous pair as a happy grin spread across her face while she said in an equally happy tone, “you're right Sasuke-Nii, Sai-Kun did give me some as a present,” with that said she unsealed them from a seal on the cuff of her right glove. As she cracked the two chuunins in disguise gulped in fear before they ran away in a panic which left the stairs free for them to travel upward. She blinked innocently before she turned to her teammates/brothers as she asked in a false innocent tone, “was it something I said?”

 

The two boys laughed before they escorted her up the stairs where they met their sensei in the hall way, he gave the three of them an eyesmile as he said cheerfully, “hello my cute little Gaki's, I'm glad to see that the three of you made it!”

 

Naruto snorted while Sasuke smirked and Sakura tossed her shoulder-length hair arrogantly as she loftily commented, “as if there was any doubt at to whether or not we'd show, Kaka-Sensei! You know better than that,” she mildly scolded him while giving him a playful glare.

 

The silver haired Jounin held up his hands as he said in an appeasing tone, “mah mah, Sakura-Chan, I get it, I shouldn't have doubted you,” with that said he ruffled her bangs before mussing the boys already messy hair as he said softly, “good luck my little brats. I'll be watching,” he commented as he left the hallway for the room that the teachers would be observing the test. As he left the three kids stared after him with bemusement written all over their faces, the three adored their sensei and heaven help anyone who thought they could mess with Kakashi Hatake without going through them first! Because as far as his three students were concerned Kakashi Hatake was part of their family and just like they would with each other as well as the few others they had claimed as theirs, nothing and no one could stop them from protecting the ones they loved.

 

####################################################################################

 

When the three members of Team Seven entered the exam room, they found it full of both forgein and native Shinobi which included Gaara along with his siblings, Sasuke nodded to the three Suna Ninja and as he glanced around the room his eyes noticed a crow sitting on the ledge outside of the window. It cawed softly before it took off, as he stared at the departing bird he contemplated as to why it seemed familiar to him, finally the Uchiha shrugged it off and allowed himself to pay attention to the room around him. While he was doing that Sakura had cataloged their competition, which included all of the Genin who graduated with them who had passed their Jounin Sensei's preliminary test, they had spotted Team Nine downstairs so they knew that at least they were participating.

 

Thankfully, unlike how he would have acted if he had not gained a mentor, admittedly she was a hands off one, as well as a Mother figure in his beloved Ryuu-Okasan, Naruto kept quiet and watched as a team near his boasted loudly about beating all of them easily. Said Genin was swiftly glared at by all of the teams and was quickly berated by his team for getting them into trouble already, Sasuke took advantage of everyone paying more attention to the other Genin then to him to summon a snake with his summoning seal. The snake he called wasn't very long, at least she wasn't very long compared to some of her brethren but considering that her sire was over forty feet long that wasn't saying much... Still she was only three and a half feet long, if her girth was the size of Sasuke wrist that would be stretching it unless she had just eaten a very large meal and had yet to digest it completely, as soon as he had summoned her the bright green snake wound her way around his neck and shoulders. She promptly proceeded to hiss a quiet hello into his ear which he responded to with a light caress to her head, “hello Navi,” Sasuke said softly as he stared at the just now entering Team Ten, Hinata was clearly nervous while Kiba was acting cocksure and Shino was calm as could be.

 

The one advantage that Sasuke had, besides the seal painted atop her head that cause everyone to dismiss the snake as a mere pet or small summon, was that fact that she couldn't speak the human tongue and as far as anyone was concerned Sasuke couldn't understand snakes like his teammate and Hinata. As such when she relayed information to Sasuke during the test he wouldn't talk back to her which would cause the proctors to think that she wasn't talking to him, especially since unlike the other villages teams which wanted to stay near each other, the Konoha four teams, along with Suna's team, new to the exam purposefully chose seats that were far apart. Sasuke was near Kankuro while Sakura was near Neji and Hinata was near the Uchiha and puppet master. Gaara was sitting near Lee and Naruto, Temari was near Ino while Shikamaru was as far away as he could get from the pair along with Choji while Kiba was sitting right next to the shadow user. Ten Ten was sitting near Gaara, to be more accurate she was sitting just one seat away from Neji but both were ignoring each other while Neji was seated right next to Sakura. Shino didn't know whether to curse his position from where he was seated just one desk in front of Sakura and one deck behind Temari, Naruto was seated off to himself, he was sitting in the row that was between Gaara's and Lee's but was a seat away from them.

 

As Ibiki introduced himself and proceeded to scare the hell out of the Genin's taking the test, their Sensei's were in the observation room to watch how their teams used the information gathering techniques that they had been taught. They saw how Sakura was flying through the test with an ease that spoke not of cheating but of pure knowledge of the tests questions, Sasuke was slightly slower than his teammate but not as slow as Naruto who was pausing after each question he answered as if he was contemplating the answer he should give. Unknown to everyone, except for maybe Baki and Kakashi, out of Team Sevens three members only Sakura wasn't cheating on the test, Sasuke had selected Navi as his eyes because she had such excellent eyesight, good enough to read the answers off of the plants test despite the fact that said plant was seated right behind Neji.

 

But if anyone could ever figure out just what unorthodox method that Naruto was using to cheat they would have a collective heart attack; he was using the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the pair had discovered an odd abillity that had manifested after the discovery of the strange forest that the fox now called home. With the right amount of concentration, which the pair had determined with a severe amount of practice, they were able to give Kurama a semi-physical form, semi because he was only solid to Naruto and careful testing had revealed that the blond was the only one able to see the fox. Just before the test had begun Naruto had called out Kurama, the fox had appeared in his semi-human form he yawned lazily before he stauntered over to a Proctor and once the test had begun he called out the answers to the questions. He paused between answers to allow Naruto to write them down, hence the reason behind the way Naruto hesitated before answering the next question.

 

After Ibiki's speech and warning about the tenth question, not to mention having over a third of the teams quit, Team Seven slowly got annoyed with what they perceived to be cowardice from the Genin leaving, as one the three rose from their seats and to the observations of the people around them it appeared that they were going to give up. However they were quickly disabused of the notion when they slammed their hands against their desks and snarled, “ **just give us the tenth question already!** _We're not like_ _ **them**_ _,”_ they sneered in unison as they pointed, also in sync, at the door where the drop outs had left before they had continued with, “ _we don't care if we fail and never can take the exam again!”_ At that all three became serious and made a speech that made a few of the planted Chuunins want to follow their example despite already being Chuunin, “because there is always the chance that we can succeed and _that_ in our eyes is enough incentive to try because as long as there is a fighting chance we won't give up, no matter what is thrown at us!”

 

The three then sat back down and stared down at Ibiki who merely stared back calmly before he asked the rest of the room, without taking his eyes off of Team Seven, “does anyone else want to leave or are you all staying for the tenth question like this team here?” The room was eerily silent after the speech and question but no one left the room after them, at that Ibiki closed his eyes as he said in a grave tone, “very well, as you wish, the tenth question is....” the teams all leaned forward in anticipation as Ibiki drew out the moment before he chirped, which silently freaked out the proctors, “you pass!” At that all of the teams goggled down at him in shock, and in the observation room some of the Jounin Sensei's were giving him the same look as their teams, at their puzzled looks Ibiki explained, “as Genin's you don't take on missions where one fact or decision can turn a mission from a success to an utter failure. However as a Chuunin you can easily end up in such a situation, by the other teams leaving instead of risking never being able to take the exam again they proved that they weren't ready to be promoted. By choosing to stay all of you proved that you might be ready to be promoted however the next two tests will prove if you're ready or not...”

 

The scarred Jounin was interrupted when one of the panes of glass broke inward to allow a purple haired woman into the room, she had a banner behind her and she called out, “Anko Mitarashi, Proctor of the Second Exam otherwise known as your torturer!” She blinked when she finally noticed how full the room was before she turned to Ibiki and said in a disbeliving tone, “I guess that you're losing your touch if you allowed this many to pass your test!” She then glanced over her shoulder at the group as she gave them a shark-like grin she said, “no worries though, I'll have the group cut by over half before I'm done with them,” after she said that she cackled.

 

In the observation room Gai barely held back the brilliant smile that threatened to let loose at how his beloved blossom was playing with the groups fears as well as her own frightening reputation and it took all of his self control not to rip out the throat of the man who remarked that Anko had to be a sadistic crazy slut since she was Orochimaru's ex-Student. Instead the green clad Jounin merely glared at the foreign Jounin as the rest of his fellow Konoha Jounin leapt to the torture experts defense, Kurenai was one of Anko's closest friends as well as one of the few that knew that Anko had been dating the same man for five years now. Asuma defended her because she was his girlfriends best friend as well as being one of the few people that Iruka still called a friend, and everyone in Konoha's Jounin adored Iruka which caused his fellow Chuunin to be jealous of the tanned man. Kakashi defended her because just like he wore his laziness, perpetual lateness and lying habits as a mask to keep himself from being hurt by those that didn't understand him, Anko kept her true personality hidden behind her crazy snake lady facade, then again this was the woman who took his joke that no one could be perceived to be so crazy that the Bingo books would have it noted in their file as a direct challenge.

 

By the time that the Konoha Jounin were done verbally flaying the now cowering man all of the Genins were leaving the room looking more than a little shell shocked about whatever Anko told them. Once everyone had left, Anko dropped her shark grin and maniacal air as she cracked her neck before she asked Ibiki in a thoughtful tone, “do you think they bought my act?”

 

Ibiki gave a snort as he started to gather up the tests before he said with an equal tone of thoughtfulness, “I doubt that you had all of them fooled but I bet you had the majority of them fooled and even if their Sensei's tell them that you aren't that scary I rather doubt that the ones you convinced will believe them...” As he had spoken he had reached Sakura's desk and flipped her test over, as he was placing it on the pile he spotted a note at the bottom of the test, as he read it he started chuckling and that chuckle kept growing until his head was thrown back as he roared with laughter.

 

Anko raised her eyebrows at that before she swiped the test from atop the pile and read it aloud, “ _P.S. This exam was stupid and an utter waste of my intelligence and time, anyone who has to cheat on this test is an idiot and a moron of worse proportions than Mazuki-Baka was. In fact I highly doubt that my teammates will have to cheat either, Sakura Uchiha-Uzumaki!,”_ Anko's grin grew as she had read the note until it was a cross between a shark like grin and the cat that got the cream look. She then laughed in amusement before she commented with a smug look, “I like this kid! Just who is her Jounin Sensei and her teammates?”

 

Ibiki raised his eyebrow skeptically as he collected the rest of the test papers, he paused to stare at her when he realized that she was serious before he deadpanned, “you mean you don't know? It was only the biggest talk of the village after their sensei passed them,” at her raised eyebrow he sighed before he stated while picking up the last four tests, “her teamates and now brothers are Sasuke Uchiha along with Naruto Uzumaki while their Jounin Sensei is non other than Kakashi Hatake..” He ignored the way that she was now gaping at him as he continued to explain by saying, “about a month ago the two boys adopted her as their sister via an old blood adoption ritual that had been in the Uzumaki library. Apparently her old clan disowned her when they found out she was thinking about allowing her teammates to adopt her into their clans, my guess is that they didn't realize just what an immense privilege it is to be offered such a thing by two ancient clans.”

 

Anko made a strangled noise at that before she said with disbelief in her tone, “no kidding, to be offered even a paper and name adoption is a high honor but to be offered a blood connection...” She shook her head over how stupid a civilian could be over Shinobi matters after all there was more than one way to join a clan and gain it's prestige you didn't have to marry into it to do so either. She then glanced over at her boss before she stated rather than asked, “I guess after such a public disownment, and it had to be pubic for them to have done the adoption so quickly, Sakura wanted nothing to do with her former clan not even their blood hence the adoption ritual.”

 

Ibiki nodded and as he led her out of the room he remarked, “right you are Anko, and once the adoption had taken place her former clan lost all rights to her honor as well as to her. Even if her name is renown throught the countries it won't be by the name of her former clan since Sasuke and Naruto made sure that the information leaked that her former clan had disowned her publicly and that they had adopted her with equal claims to her.” He snorted ironically before he stated ominously with a sinister grin, “I rather pity the fool who tries to rend their team asunder because I highly doubt that whoever it is that does try it will not survive the attempt...”

 


	23. Chapter Twenty-Two: Of Explanations, Former Badgers and Spiders!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait but apparently my only other overnight manager decided that he had a much better offer and my days off just got cut down to two a week. Which, Yay overtime! and Boo less time to work on my fic.... I'm already working on the next chapter so hopefully I'll have it out soon but I make no promises. Once again I reassure everyone that even if it takes me months to update I will update I refuse to abandon a fic that I've put so much thought and work into. :stares over her shoulder at her muses and twitches: Not to mention that I don't think my muses will let me abandon it completely. They might try to drag my attention to a different bunny but until this one is all grown up and having babies of it's own I'm ignoring the other bunnies except to feed them on occasion with a planning session...:grins widely: Or with delicious eye candy! mmmm LDP, how I love you without your shirt on! Bye bye I gotta go to sleep but I promise that I'll work on the next chap ASAP!
> 
>  
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> Psst! By the way I blame my muses for the strange tangent that this chapter took but they refused to write about anything else!

**Chapter Twenty-Two:** _Of Explanations, Former Badgers and Spiders!_

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Kushina hummed lightly to herself as she prepared the ingredients for her and Naruto's meal, once they were ready she started dinner, as she did she heard the front door open. As it did she heard her son calling out to someone, “okay, Sakura, I'll see you tomorrow at my Clans library,” with that Naruto closed the door before he called out, “Dobby, dinner smells delicious but how did you know I'd be home tonight?” As he asked that Kushina had chuckled silently as she thought to herself, _'I'm glad that I started wearing my half mask instead of my full faced ANBU mask...'_ Naruto looked up as he entered the kitchen and upon seeing the red haired ANBU the blond grinned before he cried out, “Ryuu-Okasan, you're back,” he barely waited until she had put the pan down before he hugged her.

 

She grinned down at him as she hugged him back before she nuzzled his hair, as she did she purred out, “hello to you as well my dear little fox, I see you've missed me while I was away.” She then pulled back enough so he could see her golden eyes dancing with amusement as she asked, “what have you been up to since I last saw you?” As he chattered on she had finished cooking the meal, once it was finished she had served it onto two platters she put one in front of her son along with a glass of milk. She took the second platter along with a glass of milk, she sat down across from Naruto and picked up her yakitori, as she ate it she listened to her son telling her about Sakura's adoption into his and Sasuke's clans. She couldn't help the laughter that bubbled up out of her when she heard that Fukaku was the other parent that took Sakura's former parents places along with herself, oh yeah she was so going to tease her cousin about their love child.

 

“I think Temari has a crush on Shikamaru-Chan,” Naruto remarked with a cheeky grin at her and a soft smile curved her lips as she received confirmation that even Naruto thought that the pair would be a couple, her lips curved even further when he said, “they act somewhat like Kakashi and Iruka did with each other before they got together.” He tapped his chin as he looked thoughtful before he said slowly, “I know that Kankuro likes Hinata-Chan and I'm fairly sure that Gaara has a small crush on Lee-Kun... But I'm absolutely positive that Uncle Kimi likes Baki-San!”

 

At that statement her eyebrows shot upward in shock since Kimihiro was forty one years old and only was just now showing a spark of interest in someone, she shook her head in bemusement over how that said someone was a Suna Jounin. Her bemused smile transformed into a full fledged grin when she heard Naruto remark, “Zabuza-San convinced Morino-San to date him about a month and a half ago or so...” Naruto scrunched up his nose as he said that but shrugged it off before he continued to update her on the happenings of Konoha since the last time he had seen her.

 

Once he was finished eating she took the dishes from the table, as she washed them she remarked in a thoughtful tone, “Shikamaru is a Nara, correct,” after he made a noise of assent Kushina stated, “if I'm not mistaken there is a scroll in the Konoha branch of the Uzumaki Clan Library. It should be in the defensive section, your friend Temari may find the information in it useful if she wishes to court Shikamaru,” she paused in washing the pan as if she was thinking before she slowly said, “I believe that it is on the fifth shelf of the ninth bookcase but I could be mistaken...”

 

Naruto blinked at that but shrugged it off as one of his beloved Ryuu-Okasan's oddities before he said, “I'll check on that tomorrow since my team is heading into the second stage of the Chuunin Exam.” He got a mischievous glint to his eyes as he quipped, “which will be a piece of cake for the three of us since it's going to be held in my favorite playground, The Forest of Death!”

 

Kushina giggled at how he had spoken the last bit in a dramatic tone as he held a finger up toward the sky, her gold eyes sparkled in amusement as she thought to herself, _'he definitely is his father's son...and mine for that matter! Oh, 'Kumo if only you had lived, the stories you could have told Naru-Chan, you would have had him knowing beyond a shadow of any doubt that he is his parents son...'_ After she finished the dishes, leaving them to air dry in the strainer, she led Naruto to the living room, whereupon she settled on the sofa and heedless over whether it might embarrass him, pulled Naruto into her lap before she said, “tell me all about the first stage of the exams.”

 

As she let her son's voice roll over her, Kushina carded her fingers through his hair, as she did she allowed her eyes to slip closed and, without intending to do so, fell asleep. She had slipped into slumber so soundlessly that at first Naruto hadn't realized that she was asleep until her hand ceased to card through his hair and her breathing became more rhythmic, Naruto looked up at her and blinked when he found her to be sound asleep. With a small smile he brushed her bangs aside, he then pressed a kiss to her bare cheek as he murmured softly, “goodnight, Okasan, sweet dreams,” he then attempted to extract himself from her grasp but when her arm tightened and she emitted a soft disgruntled noise he merely sighed before he settled down for the night.

 

The only concession the blond had made for the way the nights had begun to chill was to have a clone close all the windows before it draped three blankets over the two on the couch, as their combined body head quickly warmed the covers Kushina purred in contentment. Once he had dismissed his clone Naruto had nuzzled his head under her chin as he yawned sleepily, halfway through the night she had rolled over onto her side with Naruto cradled in the curve of her body while her back faced the rest of the room. Subconsciously she partially shifted into her dragon animagus form, she gained the wings, which were proportionate to her body, unconsciously the wings draped over her son, she also gained her enhanced senses and as her hands flexed her nails lengthened before they retracted.

 

Three hours later she briefly roused but swiftly returned to slumber when she recognized Dobby's scent, her heartbeat and breathing had remained slow and even despite her brief moment of consciousness so Naruto stayed fast asleep despite having his ear pressed against her jugular. Dobby blinked down at the odd puppy pile that his Mistress and Little Master made on the couch but all he did was readjust the blankets before he went to bed himself. In anticipation of his Master and Mistress' arrival back to Konoha, Dobby had spent all of his free time getting the houses that his Mistress spoke of fondly back into shape Before he had returned back to the apartment the excitable house elf had polished all the floors to a glossy shine while all of the metal accents had been buffed so they practically could be used in place of a mirror.

 

He had been surprised when he found that all over the houses were decorative carvings of dragons, foxes, wolves, dogs and lions, he had only found a single tiger in each of the houses and it was usually near the front door. Carved into the headboards in all of the master bedrooms was a lion lying beside a wolf with a dragon curled protectively around them both, he knew that his Mistress could turn into a dragon that was very similar to the one carved in the headboard. Recently Master Kisuke had gained the ability to transform into a large lion with a yellow mane, however no matter how much he tried to Dobby just couldn't figure out who the wolf was.

 

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Harry trudged up to the cave that Sirius was staying in during the Triwizard tournament, although he was racking his brain he just couldn't seem to figure out why his godfather had asked him to come visit him without Ron and Hermione. When he looked up toward the cave he saw Sirius in his dog form standing at the mouth of it, Harry waved a greeting up at the large black dog and Padfoot barked to signal that he saw the gesture before he turned around to walk back into the cave. Once he had reached the top of the tail Harry entered the cave to find Sirius in his human form tending to a small fire, “hey, Sirius,” the dark haired teen greeted the grey eyed man.

 

After the fire had been tended to Sirius hugged the slight teen as he said, “glad you could make it, pup, I was worried that you might have to come another day due to unavoidable matters.” As he pulled back from the hug Sirius ruffled Harry's already messy hair, which earned him a light smack and a halfhearted protest, Sirius chuckled lightly before he at down on the cave floor and motioned for Harry to do the same.

 

As Harry sat down across from the somewhat skinny man, he glanced around the cave before he stared at Sirius with curiosity in his eyes, a fact that caused the escaped convict to smirk in amusement, “so, why did you want me to come see you alone, Sirius?”

 

Sirius worried at his lower lip as he silently contemplated on just how to begin this rather awkward explanation, as he did he wailed silently to himself, _'dammit, James, I never thought I'd be the one to have to explain this to your child!'_ Finally the grey eyed man sighed before he said with a slight wince, “there is a few things I need to talk to you about, in fact, only four people were ever even aware about what I have to tell you!” Sirius noticed the puzzled look on his godchild's face and as he rubbed his face tiredly he said, “there is no real easy way to say this...Harry...Pup...You're a girl.”

 

Sirius was somewhat amused by what happened at the rather shocking statement he just made, Harry's jaw dropped in shock and the teen gaped at the innocent man, Sirius took advantage of the teens shock to start explaining the reasoning behind the hidden fact. “Shortly before you were born a prophecy was made that concerned a child that would be born as the seventh month died, as far as I'm aware the prophecy was made in October about two years before you were born, normally this would be a problem for any child born in those two years but there were peculiarities to this prophecy. Firstly it stated that the child would be born to parents who had thrice defied the Dark Lord, since most people didn't live past the first defiance Voldemort wasn't too worried about a prophecy that declared that a child with the power to defeat him would be born as the seventh month died.” Sirius' eyes darkened in remembered fear as he recalled how James had continually defied the Dark Lord, hell all of the Marauders except Peter openly fought Voldemort but out of the three that had only Remus and James had ever gone up against him three times while Lily faced the Dark Lord four times if you counted the time she stood between Harry and Voldemort. Sirius shook his head before he continued, “by the time you were born only two couples had defied the Dark Lord three times, both couples had a child born as the seventh month died, one couple was your parents the other was Frank and Alice Longbottom.”

 

Harry gasped in shock and Sirius nodded grimly as he said, “yeah, Neville could have easily been his target not you that night but only your parents trusted the wrong person. Frank and Ally's son was born on July 31st during the early morning hours while you were born close to the stroke of midnight, you were supposed to be born on the third or the fourth of August but apparently you decided that being born on the last hour of the 31st was a better idea.” Sirius chuckled with a wry smile before he said, “your mom went into labor and you came so fast that James didn't even have time to get a healer before you came screaming out into the world, the only reason we know the exact time you were born is due to a particular spell invented by an astrology obsessed mother who wanted her child's star charts to be exactly accurate.” He leaned over to tap his godchild on the nose as he said with twinkling grey eyes, “you were born on July 31st at 11:59:58 PM, a fact that astounded the healers since no one had ever been born that close to midnight, exactly on midnight but not as the time ticked over to the next day but still on the day in question.”

 

Sirius leaned back as he gazed at his now silently listening godchild as he smiled sadly before he said softly, “your Dad knew that if Voldemort was aware the one of the two potential children was a girl then he'd kill the boy and have the girl groomed to be his Dark Lady, subservient to his needs and wants.” At that the teen shuddered in revulsion as she made a disgusted face, Sirius barked a laugh before he remarked, “yeah that was the same look that crossed your Mum's and Dad's faces at the thought of that happening with you.” He shook his head before he stated, “Lily-Flower placed a glamour charm on you to hide the fact that you were a girl, if James hadn't of told me and your other godfather that you were a girl then I doubt we would have ever known. That's mostly because your Mum placed the charm on you as soon as you were born...”

 

At that Harry interrupted suddenly, “what do you mean by 'my other godfather'? You're my only godfather, right,” Harry asked with furrowed eyebrows as she stared up at the grey eyed man in confusion. She then raised a dark brow as she asked with her arms crossed, “and just what is my real name since I rather doubt that my Mum would have stood for me to have been named Harry if I was a girl.”

 

Sirius laughed at that before he said with a grin, “you're right, your parent's didn't name you, Harry. Your name is Kushina Ruri Potter and don't ask me where your Dad got your first name from because I'm afraid I don't have the foggiest of ideas.” He then rubbed his face again as he sighed before he said in a rueful tone, “as far as I know you have two godfathers and one Godmother. Your godmother is James' cousin, Masaki Kurosaki, she lives in Japan, at least she did the last time I saw her but that was before I went into Azkaban.... Your other godfather is my husband,” Sirius winced at that as he remembered the last time he saw his husband, yeah that was not a good memory at all since his husband had no idea that he was married to Sirius.

 

Before Kushina could ask as to why he was wincing at the thought of his husband Sirius had remarked sadly, “he's a spy in the Death Eaters but shortly before your parents were killed rumors were circling that Voldemort suspected one of his Inner Circle to be a spy so he had Lily put a memory charm on him. So although we're married in the highest bond possible he doesn't remember being married to me, nor does he remember being Lily's spy and he certainly doesn't remember being your godfather,” he snorted lightly as the irony got to him.

 

Harry, or rather Kushina watched as her godfather blinked back tears of frustration, sadness and despair as he choked out, “because if he did remember any of that then he would have known that I'd die before I would betray James, Lily and you. Not to mention that he would have never handed me over to be Kissed while joking about it!”

 

At that Kushina's eyes widened in shock, there was only one man who had technically handed Sirius over to be Kissed by the Dementors while he joked about it. That man was Severus Snape, Hogwart's Potions professor and someone who clearly hated Sirius with a fiery passion, “Snape is your husband,” she asked in a tone of disbelief as she stared at him.

 

Sirius nodded absently as he murmured, “yeah, he is, Lily was always brilliant with Charms and she was very through in doing Severus' memory charm, according to Lily the charm has two ways that it can break but I would hazard a guess that neither of those two conditions have been met yet.” When he glanced up at Kushina, he frowned when he saw her rubbing her brow as if she had a mild headache that was gradually worsening, unknown to the grey eyed wizard he was spot on. “Are you alright, pup,” he asked with concern and worry lacing his voice, as he watched his goddaughter, her furrowed brow smoothed itself and she relaxed so she was slumped against the wall.

 

When Kushina opened her eyes she flashed a smile at Sirius as she ran her hand over her left wrist as she said, “I'm fine, Sirius, I just had a few memory blocks breaking is all.” As he watched her a flash of light blocked his view of Kushina, when he could see her again it took all of his effort not to visibly gape at her. A pair of mischievous gold eyes with faint green flecks twinkled at him as their owner ran her fingers through her messy red bangs, he noticed that an onyx bracelet on the same wrist she had touched earlier.

 

Sirius blinked before he said wryly, “I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that James or Lily made sure that you were looked after if something happened to me or you were sent to the Dursley's.”

 

She nodded as she said with a smug smile, “yep, actually I didn't even live at the Dursley's full time until I was ten years old, before that I lived in Japan with my Aunt Masaki, Uncle Isshin and my cousins.” Her gold eyes softened as she murmured wistfully, “I miss them, god knows that Uncle Isshin is probably driving Ichigo, Yuzu and Karin up the wall with his antics. He just hasn't been the same since Aunt Masaki died with I was eight,” she trailed off sadly while Sirius stared at her in shock.

 

“Masaki is dead,” he asked in a strangled tone which caused her to glance up at him curiously.

 

She nodded absently before she said with a frown, “yes she died of mysterious causes, all anyone really knows is that she and Ichigo were found by the river, Aunt Masaki was lying over Ichigo as if protecting him from something... Ichigo hasn't smiled the same since then,” she crossed her arms over her chest as she looked away before she said crossly, “I'm just about the only person he smiles for anymore.”

 

Sirius leaned forward as he asked softly, “did Masaki explain things to you when you turned five?”

 

Kushina glanced at him with a sly smile as she said, “if you mean when my dreams started then, yes, she did of course Uncle Isshin recognized the description of my soul-mate as a friend of his so he had his friend come by the house. As far as I know Aunt Masaki and Uncle Isshin explained things to him before Aunt Masaki demanded a betrothal contract due to the large difference in our ages, she didn't want anyone to insinuate that we behaved inappropriately during our betrothal.”

 

Sirius shook his head wryly as he said with a relieved smile, “at least I won't have to try to explain that to you,” he then leaned back as he grinned at her. “Since I missed out on so much of your child hood, carte to tell me about it and of course about your years at Hogwarts that I missed?”

 

She grinned back at him as she said, “gladly, oh Dogfather of mine!” With that said she started her tale by saying, “where oh, where to start...”

 

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Rukia watched as Ichigo evaded several strikes that Kenpachi seemed determined to land on him, both Jushiro and Shunsui were watching in a state of bemusement since they, like most of the Seireitei, were still surprised that Kenpachi liked sparring with Ichigo. Three hours after the start of the spar, Ichigo blocked a blow as he said in a stern tone, “that enough, Kenpachi, after all,” the orange haired teen smirked slyly at him, “Captain Unohana would be very vexed if if our spar negitively impacted my healing.” What astounded most people was the fact that Ichigo didn't dumb down his words for Kenpachi like most of the Seireitei did and surprisingly the Eleventh Division captain seemed to actually understand what the words were.

 

Kenpachi huffed but sheathed his sword without too much fuss, he shook his head as he snorted before he said, “that she would. It's too bad that you'll be heading back to the Living World soon, I'll miss sparring with you,” his statement caused quite a few of his fellow Shinigami to goggle at him.

 

Ichigo flicked his wrist and the white cloth around Zangetsu's hilt extended to wrap around the blade before he swung it so it caught on the red chain that kept it across his back. “You would get along fantastically with my cousin,” he remarked wryly and as he glanced up at the tall man he stated with a smirk, “after all, you both enjoy a good spar of fight. Yeah,” he sighed as his smirk spread to a grin as he reminisced about how his cousin used to spar with her trainers, “you'd get along like a house on fire or a fish in a stream...”

 

Kenpachi glanced at Ichigo at that before he said with a sly smile, “really, well in that case you'll have to introduce us one day sometime soon...”

 

“Ichigo,” came a cry from over the hill and as he glanced up at the top the substitute Shinigami saw Orihime jogging toward him, when she reached the bottom of the hill, she handed him a bag as she said in between pants, “a white owl delivered that to the fourth, but Yoruichi told me to bring it to you.” At first Ichigo frowned slightly but once he heard that the bag had been dropped off by a large white owl he had smiled with wry amusement before he took the bag from her.

 

A moment later, he said with a slight smile, “thanks Orihime, 'Shina-Chan rarely sends me packages but it's well worth it when she does but I wonder how Hedwig was able to deliver it here...” As she watched Rukia wondered just who this 'Shina-Chan' was and just who she was to Ichigo to get this kind of a reaction since she rarely ever saw Ichigo smile. Her silent question was answered when he opened the bag and pulled out a letter that was sitting on top of the contents, with a small smile he read it aloud, “ _hey, Ichi-nii,_

 

 _I can only hope that this letter finds you well and safe. I, myself, am fine, well I'm as fine as I can be if you count having to go up against nesting mother dragons and territorial merpeople as fine! :)_ ,” he paused to stare at the piece of paper before he said, “no, Kushina, I don't consider that as fine!” He then continued, “ _sadly I don't think that my fiance would consider that as fine but what he doesn't know won't hurt me,”_ Ichigo blinked at that before he stared blandly down at the sheet of paper before he muttered, “somehow, I have the feeling you'll end up telling him anyway and he'll get ridiculously overprotective of you until you kick his ass again...And I rather doubt that Dad will be all that thrilled by it either,” he muttered under his breath before he continued as the shinigami around him gaped at the thought of dragons, _“you'll be happy to note that I've kept up with my practice of Shunpo and Hado but I haven't kept up with my Kido since I've been learning a different type of magic. So I do have a good excuse! :P.”_

 

Ichigo snorted before he stated in a singsong tone with a sly smirk, “I rather doubt that Hachi-San is going to care about excuses, Shina-Chan and you know it!” Rukia's eyebrows shot up at the tone that he was using but listened along with everyone else as he continued with reading the letter, “ _Your loving, one year younger, twin cousin,_

_Kushina Potter._

 

 _P.S. The three boxes hold some memory spheres that I made so you could have a little entertainment until I come to see you this summer!”_ He shook his head as he smirked before he muttered under his breath, “dare, I wonder what the spheres have on them or am I better off not knowing...”

 

Finally he shrugged before he flicked open the clasps of the first box in the sack as he cackled, “ah who cares, entertainment is entertainment besides knowing her it's embarrassing for some of the people we know!” With that said he plucked one of the five spheres out of the opened box with the greatest of care, Byakuya had arrived shortly after he opened the box but before he could make a scathing remark Ichigo activated the fragile looking orb. After he had activated it the brown eyed teen placed it on the ground before he sat down cross-legged to watch it, Orihime did the same along with Chad, Uryu and Rukia. The orb projected an image above it, the image showed a young Ichigo, he looked to be around four to five years old, to Rukia's surprise Ichigo was smiling happily at a brown haired woman the same brown eyes that he had. The woman was walking ahead of Ichigo who was walking fast as he cried out, “wait up Mom, you're going too fast!”

 

The woman, now identified as Ichigo's mother, laughed as she called out teasingly, “what's wrong, Ichigo-Chan, can't keep up with your old mother?” Ichigo pouted at her before a young girl with blood red hair tackled him gleefully from out of no where while his mother laughed at his sudden yelp. After a few moments of letting her crow in victory the woman said with a soft smile, “Kushina, Darling, let Ichigo up, I don't think he likes being pinned like that.”

 

The red haired child pouted over her shoulder at the woman as she whined while affecting a puppy dog look, “but Aunty, Ichigo is so easy to sneak up on and pin!”

 

A deep chuckle resounded as someone approached from the left before a man with a vaguely familiar voice spoke up, “that may be so my little niece but you had better let him up anyway.” At that moment Isshin came into the image and his dark eyes were dancing in amusement at seeing his son pinned by the younger girl, he smiled down at her as he said, “and of course he's easier to sneak up on and pin than your sensei's.”

 

The scene faded out at that and Ichigo sighed wistfully but a few moments later another scene popped up, this one showed a slightly older Kushina as she practiced Kido in what looked to be an abandoned warehouse, more specifically she was practicing the Shakaho. A blond haired girl was sitting on a crate watching her practice from the side of the warehouse, Jushiro stared in shock at seeing Hiyori Sarugaki after having not seen her for one hundred years. After Kushina performed the Kido successfully Hiyori had clapped her hands as she called out cheerfully, “well done, Shina-Chan, Hachi will be pleased with your progress when he returns!”

 

The red head flashed a grin at the blond at that but a voice came from beyond the edge of the image, the man commented, “he'll be pleased that your kido is coming along spectacularly but we still need to work on your Hado, Brat.” As the man had spoken Shuhei frowned in puzzlement, the voice sounded familiar to him as if he had heard it before but he couldn't quite place where he silently hoped that the man would speak more since it might help him remember.

 

A few moments after he began speaking the man entered the area of the image, as Kushina bowed to him in a teasing fashion she said playfully, “as you wish, 'Sei-Sensei!” At that a man with short silver hair came into view, he was wearing black pants and a grey tank top, on both of his hands were fingerless gloves, he smirked down at his student who grinned back up at him. It took all of Shuhei's self control not to gape or shout out the older man's name, self control that he would find sorely lacking the next time he met the man face to face, the other captains and lieutenants who knew just who he was had no such compunction and gaped at the scene.

 

Kensei rolled his eyes at the tone that the red haired girl had taken with him before he lunged at her with the intent to strike her. She dodged the blow with the ease of long practice, the view of the scene expanded to show a few other people that the Seireitei had thought either dead or lost to them because of their inner hollow. Kensei's former second was leaning against a large chunk of concrete that the former lieutenant of squad eight was sitting on, said former second was reading a magazine. A couple of feet away from the two girls was Shinji Hirako, he was nursing a bump on his head which, unknown to everyone except Ichigo, came courtesy of Hiyori. All of the group was watching Kensei and Kushina sparring, which Kensei was not going easy on her despite her only being seven years old, after all she had been under his tutelage since she was barely five years of age. As far as he was concerned he no longer needed to go easy on her because it wouldn't help her learn at all. When it came to training the former captain of the ninth division was ruthless because he wanted whoever it was that he was training to live no matter what they came across.

 

Quite a few of the unranked Shinigami watching winced in sympathy when Kensei backhanded her, which caused her to slam into a large chunk of reinforced concrete, before anyone could object to the rough treatment, Kushina had reappeared behind Kensei. She used a roundhouse kick against his lower back which in turn caused him to slam into an already dented pillar, said pillar promptly collapsed due to the last of it's supporting base vanished. The scene faded as Kensei struggled out of the heap of rubble, the next three scenes were similar to the first two but the fourth one was different because it showed a shirtless Kensei in the kitchen cooking.

 

A scene that caused more than one person watching to drool, and not over what he was cooking either, the silver head was bopping to the beat of a small pulsing orb. As they watched the song that the orb was playing changed and unconsciously Kensei started to move his body to the new beat before he started singing along to it. “ _Now as the summer fades, I let you slip away,_

_You say I'm not your type but I can make you sway_

_It makes you burn to learn that you're not the only one,_

_I'd let you be if you'd put down your blazing gun,_

 

 _Now you've gone somewhere else, Far away  
I don't know if I will find you (find you, find you).  
But you feel my breath, on your neck  
Can't believe I'm right behind you (right behind you),”_ as he sang he was chopping onions and other vegetables, he added a few to a pan to brown and as he tossed the ingredients he continued to sing. _  
  
“'Cause you keep me coming back for more (Coming back for more)  
And I feel a little better than I did before,” _ it was as if he couldn't help making showy moves as he sang because he kept doing tricks with knives and the pan as he sang. _  
  
“And if I never see your face again, I don't mind  
'Cause we got much further than I thought we'd get tonight,” _ he threw a knife in the air and caught it with ease before he tossed it at the cutting board. “ _Sometimes you move so well_  
It's hard not to give in.

 _I'm lost, I can't tell  
Where you end and I begin.  
  
It makes you burn to learn  
I'm with another man.” _ He paused for a moment to shake his head at that lyric but continued as he sang he slid some bacon into the skillet before he cracked open a few eggs, “ _I wonder if he's half_  
The lover that I am.

 _  
Now you've gone somewhere else, Far away  
I don't know if I will find you (find you, find you).  
But you feel my breath, on your neck  
Can't believe I'm right behind you (right behind you),” _ in a way it was a good thing that they could hear the song for themselves and knew that two people were singing the original since that would have been confusing for them otherwise. “ _'Cause you keep me coming back for more (Coming back for more)  
And I feel a little better than I did before  
If I never see your face again, I don't mind  
'Cause we got much further than I thought we'd get tonight,” _ he poured the now scrambled eggs into yet another pan and waited for a moment before he began to stir them with a fork, several people winced at the sound of metal on metal but were watching with amusement as he continued to bop to the beat and sing, “ _Baby, baby  
Please believe me  
Find it in your heart to reach me  
Promise not to leave me behind  
(Promise not to leave me behind)  
  
Take me down, but take it easy  
Make me think but don't deceive me  
Torture me by taking your time  
(Torture me, torture me)  
'Cause you keep me coming back for more  
And I feel a little better than I did before  
  
If I never see your face again, I don't mind  
'Cause we got much further than I thought we'd get tonight (torture me, torture me),” _ he then took out a large mixing bowl and cracked open at least a dozen eggs into it before he added the vegetables into the batter and stirred it. “ _'Cause you keep me coming back for more (Coming back for more)_  
And I feel a little better than I did before (Did before)  
And if I never see your face again, I don't mind  
'Cause we got much further than I thought we'd get tonight!”

 

As he placed the mixture first into a large pan then into the oven the song changed yet again and he grinned to himself which puzzled the group watching at first since the beat was different from the last song, their puzzlement lasted until the singer began to sing. Kensei sang along with the female singer as he started to clean up his mess, Shuhei had been staring at the other mans back ever since the scene began, apparently sometime after fleeing to the living world the silver haired man had gotten a second tattoo, or had it all along but he thought the first idea more likely. The second tattoo covered Kensei's back from his shoulder blades to his lower back, it was of a figure hidden in shadows with a three bladed scythe with blood red blades. Lying at the figures feet was a large white tiger with silver stripes, he vaguely heard part of the lyrics that Kensei's was singing, “ _if you could only see, the beast you've made of me_ ,” but most of his concentration was taken up by watching the muscles in the older mans back move.

 

Shunsui chuckled wryly before he muttered to Jushiro, “at least we know they're okay now,” at that comment Renji, Rukia, Izuru and a few others who overheard him glanced at the captain curiously. However only Jushiro nodded in agreement with his best friends comment, Chad glanced over at the older men, but despite his curiosity he swiftly glanced away, he looked down at Ichigo who, completely unlike his usual self, was rolling on the ground laughing as he clutched his stomach.

 

As he got his breath back the orange haired teen gasped out to his friends “man I had completely forgotten that Kensei sings along to the radio like that, I'm going to have to thank Kushina when I see her next. 'Cause Yuzu and Karin are going to love watching this,” as he said that the scene showed how Kensei pulled the pan out of the oven before he stuck his head out the door and yelled that breakfast was ready

 

Shuhei stared at the way the two blonds from the second scene barreled into the kitchen arguing the whole way, the argument ended with Shinji being tossed into the wall while Hiyori snarled, “you're sleeping in the guest room for a month for that, Shinji!” At that everyone who knew that pairs antagonizing relationship goggled in shock, in fact their jaws dropped even further when Hiyori dropped down into her seat as she muttered, “my idiotic husband should know better by now but does he, oh no...” She pointedly ignored the pouting former Fifth division captain as she did, the scene faded to black as Shinji started to apologize and try to wriggle out of sleeping in the guest room for the next month.

 

Ichigo scooped up the now dormant orb as he chuckled over how argumentative the married couple could be with each other, “man, I really hope those guys keep their promise to return to Karakura soon, 'cause it's been weird not having to put up with Shinji and Hiyori's arguments...” As he had spoken Ichigo had put the orb back into place in the box before he picked up another orb and seemed to be contemplating it when he noticed a second note under yet another ball. He placed the orb back down so he could grab the letter and read it silently to himself, ' _Hey Ichigo,_

_I figured that since I haven't been that forthcoming about my years at Hogwarts I thought I'd send you some orbs that contain my years at it instead. In the third box is my memories from my time in the King's guard, I'm sure Rukia will find my memories of Hisana to be amusing and enlightening. By the way if anyone watching is unaware of my glamour you should probably tell them about it so they aren't shocked._

 

_Kushina,_

_Second in command of the Kings Guard and your adorable cousin._

 

_P.S. The middle sphere in the third box, yes Ichigo, that is the red orb in the gold box, is blank. I figured you could fill it with memories from your life as Hisana, minus anything that might give away your current life of course. :)_

 

 _P.P.S. These post script notes are only visible to you and me!'_ As he read that he thought to himself, _'well, that's a relief,'_ as he did he set down the note he lifted the center ball of the third box and rolled it between his palms as he concentrated on his life as Hisana. After he did that the orange haired teen plucked out the bright blue orb in the lower left corner of the box that he took the other orb out of. He activated it before he rolled it lightly so it was in the center of the group that had gathered when the first ball played.

 

The group watched a slightly familiar woman appeared in front of a man on a throne, beside her was a blond haired blue eyed man, both looked wary of their sudden appearance. The man was wearing a Haori that stated he was the fourth fire shadow, whatever that was supposed to mean, while the woman wore a sleeveless, backless turtleneck. She was also wearing black gloves that went up past her elbows, as the light glinted off of her fingertips they realized that the gloves had metal claws sewn into the fingertips. She had white armor over her forearms, lower legs and her chest, as soon as they appeared she immediately moved so she stood in front of the man protectively while he had dropped his hand to a pouch on his leg.

 

The seated man noticed them as soon as they had arrived but he let them catch their bearings before he said with a smirk, “I was beginning to wonder when you two would be showing up. However, you can't stay, so off the two of you go,” he tossed a letter at the man before they vanished from sight and the scene faded to black.

 

Before anyone could react to that the next scene had already begun, the pair from the first scene reappeared before the same man as before but, this time they startled when a dark haired woman, who almost everyone watching recognized, stepped in front of him with a sword drawn. As she did she demanded, “who are you and why have you appeared before the King so suddenly,” her eyes were narrowed in suspicion as she stared at them.

 

Byakuya's eyes widened in shock at seeing his beloved wife standing so close to the Spirit King, as were most of the people around him but you could have knocked him over with a feather at that moment. They all listened as if through a fog as the red haired woman said, “my name is Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze and this is my husband, Minato Namikaze. As for why we appeared here, twice I might add, I have not freaking clue, I swear on my beloved Ramen,” the red haired woman had held up her right hand as she swore to the food item.

 

Hisana eyed them as she assessed as to whether or not the pair was a threat to the King, finally she sheathed her sword before she tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean by twice,” she asked curiously as she stared at them before she added, “I've never seen you before and I either would have been told about you appearing or I would have witnessed it.”

 

At that Minato shrugged before he held up the letter the King had tossed at him shortly before they reappeared in front of this pair, as he did he said, “he tossed this at us before we came here.” With that he handed it over to Hisana who promptly handed it over to the King as she recognized it to be his handwriting and addressed to himself.

 

After the King had read the letter, he sighed before he leveled a stare at them as he asked, “what would the two of you be willing to do to return to your son and village without any repercussions?”

 

The pair glanced at each other, to Hisana it appeared as if the two of them were holding an entire conversation completely in silence, finally the woman faced the King as she said evenly, “so long as you could hold up your end of the bargain... Then I very much doubt that there would be much we wouldn't do to get back to our son and home,” she arched one brow as she drawled out, “why do you ask?”

 

He stared at the woman, who if the letter could be believed, would from this day forth be the second in command of his guard as well as a future candidate for the position of Heir to the Throne of Heaven. After a moment he stated, “I need someone to take the position of Lieutenant of my Guard since I recently had my previous Lieutenant retire so he could take on a mission. And according to this letter,” he held up the note as example, “that person is you. Your husband on the other hand, will be sent to Soul Society to be reincarnated,” at their slightly panicked looks he quickly reassured them, “he would still have his memories, they would just be suppressed but his base personality will be essentially the same.”

 

Minato sighed as he glanced at his worried wife before he stared at the King, “you swear that we'll be together again one day with all of our memories intact?”

 

The King nodded as he stated in a formal tone, “I swear upon my throne that the two of you will be with each other once more with all of your memories intact.”

 

At that Minato nodded as he said, “then send me on my way,” he then turned to his wife and kissed her passionately before he pulled back as he said, “I love you, now and forever. Keep that in your mind, I have no doubt that I'll always love you even without my memories, after all,” he paused long enough to smile before he said with his forehead resting against hers, “you're in my marrow, in my blood and undoubtedly you're in my soul.”

 

Once the pair had said their 'I'll see you, later's' a fact that caused Hisana to raise her eyebrows but she could see the logic in not wanting to say goodbye. Kushina watched as Minato faded from sight, hoping with all her heart and soul that it wouldn't be the last time she would see him. After a brief moment of silence the King broke the silence by stating, “if she is to be your second, then you had better be the one to test her, Hisana.”

 

Kushina glanced over in time to see the other woman bow deeply to the man as she said, “of course, your majesty, I shall do so at once.” She then turned to Kushina and gestured for her to follow her, after a brief moment of hesitation Kushina did as the older woman bade. The dark haired woman led her down a series of long twisting hallways until they reached a large training area. As she led the red head into the area Hisana had stated firmly, “you'll have to borrow a couple of training swords since you haven't gained your own Zanpakuto yet.”

 

Kushina was confused at first before comprehension came to her as Hisana unsheathed her sword and gestured for her to chose a weapon from the wall that held several swords displayed on it. Already a few of the other members of the Kings Guard had shown up, it was rare that Hisana tested a new member so for the King to have ordered her to do so then there must be something special about her. One of the unseated officers sucked in a shocked breath when he recognized the red head but didn't tell his fellow officers about just what it was that made her so special, after all it was extremely rare that a Jinchuuriki became a Shinigami.

 

To everyone's, except Yahiko's, surprise Kushina chose two blades, all of the training blades were master-less and without a Zanpakuto spirit but none of the watchers truly expected her to gain her Zanpakuto spirits on her first day. Yahiko could have told them that the Uzumaki clan blew any learning curve out of the water when they put their mind to it, they thrived on doing the impossible or so it seemed, so although it was highly unlikely to happen the former Akatsuki leader wouldn't put it past her. Those gathered to watch did so as the pair traded assessing blows and once Kushina was sure that Hisana could handle whatever she threw at her the red head let loose. Hisana's only warning about Kushina's changed attitude was a slight tightening of her grip on the swords and her changed stance other than that Kushina didn't give away her new focus.

 

To the unranked and lower seated officers it was as if a switch had been flipped to allow a far different woman to step forward and fight, this was due to how the pairs swords now clanged loudly against one another. When Hisana managed to get both swords away from Kushina, her subordinates thought that would be the end of the fight but they were quickly disabused of that notion when Kushina ducked a blow before she kicked Hisana into a wall with ease. Hisana was startled by the blow but quickly recovered from the attack and went on the offensive but the red head evaded all of the blows, despite not having a Zanpakuto or even a sword she was holding her own.

 

A fact that startled everyone watching but something was about to happen that would cause all of them to be in shock, Hisana was getting frustrated at Kushina's refusal to surrender the fight and without meaning to she released a wave of Reiatsu from her sword. Her eyes widened in shock and horror since there was no way for Kushina to dodge the blow as the wave was far too large, however at the last moment a pair of men appeared. One was holding a Khopesh while the other was holding a scythe, as one the two men stepped forward and used the weapons to slice right through the energy wave.

 

When the group of watchers could see the red head again she was being supported by the two men while their weapons were planted in the ground near them. She was glancing between them with a confused expression on her face, at first everyone was as confused as she was about the identity of the two men, at least they were until the next action of the pair. As soon as she was steady on her feet both men reached down and grabbed their blades, they then handed the blades to her hilt first as they said, “we are yours to wield as you see fit, Mistress Kushina, consider us your humble and loving guards/ _protectors,”_ the only difference to their speeches was the final word.

 

Kushina watched, clearly still in shock, as the two men vanished from sighted and the weapons changed forms in her hands, both changed into normal katanas save for the animals etched into the sword near the hilt. Except for the animals the only difference between the two blades was the color of the bands around their hilts, the sword with the jackal holding an anke in it's mouth had black and gold wrappings while the sword with the crow holding the scythe had blue and black wrappings. As she shifted the blades in her grip to get a better view of the etched animals Kushina frowned since she rarely liked to carry her weapons so openly. While she contemplated whether or not she could seal the swords into a storage seal the two bare blades vanished with a flash of light. When she could see again she noticed that the two animals that had been etched on the blades were now etched in black on her armored forearms.

 

With that the scene faded to black, everyone stared in shock at seeing the King for the first time but only five of the people who had seen Ichigo use the move realized that Hisana had used his signature Getsuga Tenshō on Kushina during her assessment test. Neither Kenpachi nor Yachiru thought much about it only that it explained just why Ichigo had been so set on rescuing Rukia despite her strident protests. Yoruichi on the other hand was already aware of Ichigo and Hisana's connection to one another, however it took all of Renji's, rather new in most peoples opinion, sense of self preservation and control not to yell that his Captains deceased wife's reincarnation just beat the utter crap out of him over her sister's safety. Rukia mere stared at the faded image in utter shock before she turned her gaze onto the reincarnation of the woman who she just found out was her older sister as she did she thought to herself, _'well at least his refusal to listen to my protests about him rescuing me makes sense now....Along with his anger at Byakuya-Nisama...not to mention why he constantly uses his name rather than his title but I could be wrong about that...'_

 

Before the next scene could start the teen stopped it with a look of contemplation after a moment he glanced over at Rukia as he asked, “hey Rukia,” once he had her attention he continued with, “do you want to watch the orb your sister made?”

 

Both Rukia and Byakuya's eyes widened in shock at that but Rukia nodded eagerly as she walked over to the teen and as she sat down beside him the dark haired girl said, “yes, of course, Ichigo. What do you think I am, crazy?”

 

Ichigo huffed a laughed at her enthusiasm but activated the orb he had been holding before he set it down and rolled it to where the other had been sitting before he had put it away. He watched with a sense of nostalgia as his younger female self walked into the Kings Throne room and kneeled in front of him as she stated with her head bowed, “you wished to see me, your Highness?”

 

The King stared in contemplation at her bowed head before he said with a weary sigh, “yes, Hisana, I did wish to see you,” after a brief moment to gather his thoughts he commanded her, “rise and look at me, Captain Hisana.” Once she had done so, glancing up at him oddly for the title since she had been the Captain of his guard so long that the title was practically not worth using anymore. As soon as she was standing and looking him in the eye the King said with a firm tone, “I have a request to make of you,” he paused for a moment before he stated in an even firmer tone as if to impress upon her what he was saying, “you are free to decline the request if you choose to do so once you have heard it. Do you understand, Hisana-Chan,” he raised an eyebrow and patiently waited until she had answered, once she had he continued by saying, “as you are very well aware I have been contemplating who will be my heir since none of my own line wants to ascend to the throne.” He shot her a wry smile, which she returned with a slightly sheepish one, before he continued, “I even had a candidate in the Seireitei, however...” he trailed off as he closed his eyes with a pained yet angry look.

 

After a moment he opened his eyes and continued as if he had never paused, “however, I recently was informed of some rather disturbing facts by our dear former Lieutenant.”

 

At that he was suddenly interrupted by Hisana who asked in a worried tone, “how is that silly boy? And just why did you let him retire from his position as my second to run off to play spy in the Seireitei!”

 

The King shot her an exasperated but fond glare as he said in an aggrieved tone, “if you hadn't of interrupted me, my dear Captain, then you would know. So can I continue or do you wish to complain some more?” She sheepishly muttered an apology so he went on, “young Gin took the mission to keep an eye on the Seireitei candidate, just as you have the option of refusing the mission he could have turned down his.” He glanced down at her as h said in a teasing tone, “besides, I thought you liked Kushina...”

 

Hisana huffed and glared up at him as she retorted, “you know very well that I do but Gin was my second for over four hundred years, of course I'm going to miss him as well as worry if he's alright!” At that everyone, especially Rukia, goggled in shock as they all shared the same thought of _'no way, Gin Ichimaru was the second in command of the Kings Guard for over four hundred years? Not to mention that he's a spy for the King in the Seireitei, or would that be he was the Kings spy in the Seireitei seeing as he's now in the realm of the Hollows... But seriously are we sure that we're talking about the same Shinigami?'_

 

Their silent doubts were disbanded by the Kings comment of, “I understand that, Hisana, but he was the only one I trusted, besides you, out of the five within my Guard that had never set foot in the Seireitei, If he had refused the mission I would have asked you and had you refused then I would have asked young Yahiko,” at that Hisana made a strangled noise of protest. The King looked bemused as he pointed out to her, “Nawaki-Chan isn't much better than Yahiko and I need Dan to keep Yahiko and Nawaki-Chan in line. So really if you think about it, it was probably for the best that former Lieutenant Ichimaru took the mission, even if he's having to pretend that he is not yet capable of Bankai...”

 

“Which has to be driving him absolutely insane, Heaven only knows what pranks Shinsō is planning due to having to be restricted,” Hisana had muttered under her breath.

 

“The mission that I would like you to undertake is quite simple, my dear,” the King continued as he ignored her muttering, he then gave her a solid stare as he stated, “I wish for you to apprehend Aizen Sousuke, once you have confirmed that he has deliberately used the Shikai of his Zanpakuto to cause harm to others... Or,” he paused briefly to give her a wry smile before he said, “if you have found sufficient evidence of his treason against the Throne of Heaven. If Gin's report is indeed true then you are to bring him before me for judgment, as I find his belief that I and my Guards could be so easily slain so he may take the Throne as his own to be highly insulting to both myself as well as you. Do you accept the mission, Hisana,” the King settled back into his Throne to await her answer.

 

Rukia and Byakuya stared as Hisana seemed to contemplate the parameters of the mission before she answered the King with a bow as well as a softly murmured, “I accept the mission, my King, as you will it so shall it be done.”

 

The King sighed in relief before he said, “thank you, Hisana, you have three hours to prepare before you are to depart for the Rukongai, give your final orders to your subordinates and seal away your Zanpakuto's sword form. As far as the Seireitei and the Rukongai is to be concerned you are not capable of being a Shinigami despite your modest levels of Reiatsu, as for Gin Ichimaru... I highly suggest that the pair of you adopt the policy of _'I don't know you, you don't me,'_ to keep anyone from suspecting that the two of you know each other. To that end I'm placing you in the Rukongai about two hundred to two hundred and fifty years ago, I don't know precisely where in the Rukongai that you'll end p but it shouldn't be more than you can handle.”

 

Hisana murmured her agreement and three hours later she was standing in a circle of light wearing a modest yukata, the best way to blend in is to be common and thus unworthy of notice. Before the spell could whisk her away after it's activation a woman holding a bundle lunged forward and placed the bundle in the circle with Hisana, her eyes widened in shock before she and the bundle vanished from sight. As the scene faded to black they all heard the King state with pride in his voice, “good job, Mariko, there was no way that Hisana would have taken little Rukia-Chan with her without a long and arduous argument.”

 

As Rukia stared at the now emerging scene with stunned amazement the rest of the watchers were muttering in shocked awe, she could understand perfectly after all it wasn't every day you heard the King order the Head of his Guard to bring someone before him for the crime of Treason with a capital T. The next scene showed Hisana standing in a small clearing with the bundle that the woman had placed with her at her feet, the small woman sank down onto her haunches as she muttered in a worried tone, “oh, what in the world was he thinking, Rukia-Chan, you'd be so much safer in the palace than with me! But we'll just have to be careful and make the best of it, now let's what they gave us to work with then we'll see about finding out just where in the Rukongai we're at...”

 

She then scooped up the baby from the center of the bundle and rubbed her nose against Rukia's as she crooned, “hmm, how does that sound to you, Imouto?” Rukia gurgled happily so Hisana smiled brightly down at her little sister as she chirped, “I'll take that as a _'that sounds like a perfect idea, Hisana-Nee-Chan,'_ yes I will!” Byakuya smiled slightly as he watched this much more carefree version of his wife, even if it was just a memory he was happy to watch as his beloved wife doted upon her baby sister.

 

With that said Hisana dug through the bundle and sighed with relief as she found a sling as well as Rukia's feeding bottle that Kushina had convinced, in other words bullied, a former witch into charming for her so it would fill with milk and stay the perfect temperature with a tap to a certain part of the bottle. Absently she fed Rukia as she contemplated the rest of the meager but highly useful things in the bundle and silently thanked the Heavens that she had asked Kushina to show her how to put storage seals into clothing or she'd never be able to carry all of this with her as well as her own chosen supplies. Hisana finally stood with a sigh after having stored all of the belongings into the seals before she said as she gathered Rukia to place in the sling, “well, the mission won't finish itself so we better get going.”

 

The entirety of the group watching who had thought Hisana to have been weak and incapable of looking out for herself, not to mention Rukia, were quickly disabused of the notion when they watched her travel from the eighteth district of the West Rukongai. She traveled constantly, only staying in certain districts longer than two days and even then she only stayed long enough to gather supplies for herself before moving on. When she reached the Inuzuri, otherwise known as the Hanging Dog, seventy eighth District of the Rukongai. Renji frowned since he, like everyone else who hadn't know n her well, had assumed that Hisana had abandoned Rukia a= shortly after arriving in the Rukongai. However it would seem that she had kept Rukia with her for at least two decades if not longer since it was only assumed that Rukia was one hundred and sixty years old but if Rukia hadn't aged during her first five decades then she could easily be two hundred and ten years old.. The only one who truly knew was Hisana, so the tattooed red head made a mental note to talk to Ichigo about it later, for now he watched as Hisana ducked into an abandoned building he then watched as she shimmied up the frame work of the building to hide Rukia in the loft, just like she had done hundreds of times before, before she made her way back down so she could go find herself food and water.

 

When Hisana came back to the building she immediately made her way up to the loft to retrieve Rukia but, unlike the many times before, Rukia was nowhere to be found. Byakuya stared in shock as his wife hunted all throughout the Rukongai, she had even ventured into Zaraki but she emerged unscathed and walked out beside a distinctive pair of Shinigami but the three parted ways as Hisana went to the East while Kenpachi went South twoard the Seireitei with Yachiru. Rukia watched in bemusement how her Byakuya-Nisama spent over fifteen years courting her elder sister before Hisana even consented to a formal courtship and it took a further five years for him to get her to say yes to his marriage proposal. But to her surprise it took yet another twenty years before she relaxed enough to let her true personality loose around any Kuchiki that wasn't her husband, much to the councils dismay.

 

As she stared at the scene where her sister sassed the Kuchiki Clan Council she thought to herself, _'how is it that Byakuya-Nisama can't seem to see that my sister is sitting next to me. Then again Hisana-Neechan was always smiling according to Ukitake-Taicho so the fact that Ichigo doesn't do that anymore since his mom died might be throwing him off...'_ But the next scene was one that shocked everyone, and caused Byakuya to close his eyes in pain as he relieved that day, it showed a frail Hisana lying on a futon with Byakuya kneeling next to her, he held her hand tightly as her body was wreaked by uncontrollable coughs tinged with blood.. As they watched they all heard her extract a promise from Byakuya that he would find and adopt her sister as his own but she also had him swear that he would never reveal to Rukia that she was Hisana's younger sister. Two days after gaining his promise the Head Guard passed away, murmuring as she did, “I'm sorry to leave you so soon, my love but I just can't hold on any longer, I swear if it is within my power I'll find you again one day but I can't promise that I'll look the same as I do now...”

 

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Kushina stirred as she woke from her nape to find her and Naruto covered by a blanket, Naruto had his head nuzzled under her chin and he snuffled happily to himself as a jaw-cracking yawn overtook her. Without thinking twice she rolled off of the couch leaving the blond lying alone, after she had stretched she scooped up her son, who was thankfully much heavier than the last time she had to carry him to bed, she then took him to his bed room. However, when she tried to leave him there so she could head home to catch at least another three hours of sleep Naruto refused to let go of her so she crawled into the bed beside him. As she did she muttered to herself, “it's a good thing we're both so petite or this would be one very tight fit in this bed...”

 

With that said she quickly slipped back into a deep sleep, meanwhile back at Hogwarts, Kisuke walked into her rooms to find them empty of her presence, he wasn't all that surprised to be informed by the portrait that she had gone to visit their son. Instead he merely shrugged before he crawled into her bed and muttered to the portrait, “wake me up when she comes in or at eight o'clock whichever event happens first...” Three hours later his still yawning wife strolled into the room, she took one look at her snoozing husband before she blinked and walked into the bathroom to take a shower, as she did she thought to herself with no end of amusement, _'I traded one sleeping blond for another!'_

 

In another hour she emurged from the bathroom, her skin a bright pink from the long emursion underneath the hot spray, she was wrapped in a towel and drying her hair with another as she walked over to the wardrobe. Once her hair was dry she tossed the towel over the back of a chair and called out over her shoulder as she reached inside of the wardrobe for an outfit, “love, it's time for all good mad scientists to be up and about!” She couldn't help the laugh that escaped her when he had muttered that the very deffination of mad scientist precluded him of being good therefore he didn't have to get up just yet. She then affected a pout as she said mournfully, “so I guess you don't want my special strawberry-banana pancakes for breakfast then...”

 

As soon as she had said that a yellow flash rushed past her and the bathroom door slammed, she smirked as she said in a smug tone, “I'll take that as a _'I'd love some of your delicious pancakes my dearest wife,'_ shall I?”

 

With that she got dressed in a short sleeved shirt, which most of her fellow students thought was crazy for wearing such clothing in winter, she had a pair of close fitting but not skin tight pants on and was wearing a pair of black hiking boots with them. Stitched on the left shoulder of her shirt was a white fang but on the right shoulder was the Uzumaki spiral in blood red, once she was dressed she left the room to go prepare Kisuke's favorite pancakes of all time.

 

As she was placing the last stack on the platter Kushina heard a familiar voice coming from the doorway, “I thought I might find you down here when I didn't see you in the Great Hall.” The former Shinobi glanced over her shoulder at the grey eyed blond and grinned at the twenty year old man, who was smirking back at her as he asked, “how have you been lately, Kushina?”

 

She put down the spatula and hugged him as she said cheerfully, “I've been pretty good lately,” she flashed him a smug smirk as she said, “after all, Voldy is going for good and the Death Eater trials are over. How have you been, Cedric, I haven't heard from you since you had to decline my wedding invitation due to being outside of the United Kingdom...”

 

He rubbed the back of his head at that as he sheepishly said, “I've been alright, I am sorry to have missed the wedding but it was just really bad timing on my part... So, what's this I heard about Fleur marrying a Weasley,” he asked with a raised eyebrow at her.

 

She laughed before she flashed him a grin that made him extremely glad that she had promised him not to prank him unless he did something monumentally stupid. After she finished laughing she said, “that Cedric is a long sorid tale, and one that I will happily tell you over lunch later today but first things first...” She gestured to the platter and the house elves immediately whisked it away, she then led the way out the door, “I want to have breakfast as I'm starving and I want to introduce you to my husband Kisuke Urahara.” With that said she led her fellow former Hogwarts Champion out of the kitchen and up to the Great Hall for the first meal of what was looking to be an absolutely fantastic day.

 

 


	24. Chapter Twenty-Three:  Of Forests, Snakes and Pedophiles!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first let me apologize for taking so long to post this chapter but it's been one thing right after another with RL, my mom's truck is broke down so I'm worrying over whether or not I'll be able to pay the mechanic for fixing it. Then my mom fell due to the medicine that her doctor had her taking, without informing her that falling was a possible side effect I might add. Not to mention that my regular muses have decided to go play with some other muses and brought them back home, which are currently giving me ideas for yet another story but this one is too intriguing to let go for me so I guess that I'll write it, so as you can guess I'm laying the foundations for said story so when I go to write it I won't get sidetracked! ^_\ I'm working on the next chapter though and I'll post it as soon as I'm finished but I will not promise as to when that will be. *mutters under her breath: darn flighty muses, why do they keep wanting to jump ahead...*

**Chapter Twenty-Three:** _Of Forests, Snakes and Pedophiles!_

* * *

 

Naruto woke up slowly, as he stretched he realized that he was alone but when he he had fallen asleep with his Ryuu-Okasan on the couch, he then opened his eyes and glanced around the room, he was startled to find himself tucked into his bed. As he contemplated on the plan for the day a yawn overtook him, his jaw popped and he sleepily rubbed at his eyes before he rolled out of the bed to pick out a set of clothes to wear after his shower. However to his surprise a set was already laid out for him, it consisted of a sea blue sleeveless turtleneck for and undershirt to a long-sleeved fishnet shirt, the bottom half of the outfit was a pair of tight, but still loose enough to allow him maximum flexibility, navy blue pants. A bundle was on the desk near the set of clothes and a letter with his name on it was lying beside the bundle, he picked it up and after he opened it he read it.

 

Naruto smiled fondly at the letter and tucked it with her other letters to him before he carefully opened the fabric wrapped bundle, his eyes widened when he held up a Haori that would be ankle-length on him. It was a sea blue in color while there was an orange flame motif at the bottom, stitched on the coats right shoulder in maroon, bright green and black was the same symbol etched in Neji's new weapon. On the left shoulder was the Uchiha fan, Naruto traced the stitches of the fan as he recalled how the Uchiha clan would shelter him from the civilians of Konoha along with anyone else that was after him.

 

However, when Naruto turned it around to look over the back, since his own uncle had his titles proudly displayed on the back of his jacket the blond reasoned that his Ryuu-Okasan might have put one on the back of his coat. He gaped at the back of the coat in shock, this was due to what was proudly displayed on it, it showed that he had the highest rank possible for a Seal Novice with his snake summons as the animal within the circle but spiraling around that was the symbol that was used by both his clan and his Mother's birth village. Directly under that symbol was a dragon colored in a brilliant crimson red while to the dragons left was a snow white wolf with it's head thrown back in a howl and on the other side was a lion with a yellow name, it was roaring in a show of defiance.

 

“Wow, I'm definitely going to be wearing this in the next two tests,” Naruto exclaimed quietly himself, the symbols on the sleeves made perfect sense to the blond since he knew that the woman who taught his mother how to use swords was his Great-Aunt Kimiko Senju-Jashin and that symbol was of her own clan. The Uchiha also made sense since her mother, his grandmother, was an Uchiha with an active Sharingan, the blond figured that the dragon was Ryuu's way of claiming him but he couldn't figure out who the lion and the wolf were. At least he couldn't until he remembered that most of the notes on the back of pictures with his Mother, Father and Sakumo Hatake all referred to his Dad as his Mom's Yellow Lion while Sakumo was her White Wolf.

 

He thought the spiral around his seal symbol was for his Mother but unknown to the Jinchuuriki it only stood for his Clan, written under the three animals was a title, it read boldly **'Konoha's Maelstrom.'** Naruto huffed a quiet laugh since his first name did translate to Maelstrom while his team liked to joke that he was Konoha's number one most unpredictable stubborn ninja and that being in his way was like trying to avert a natural calamity without chakra to aide them. As he carefully put the jacket away Naruto said with a wry smirk, “I wonder how long it will take for my title to circulate through the other countries after I wear that for the first time...”

 

Although reluctant to put it away until the next test, which was set for six days from now, Naruto put it up before he went to take a shower and get dressed in a different outfit from the one laid out for him by his Ryuu-Okasan. Two hours later, Sakura and Sasuke found Naruto searching through the defensive jutsu section of his Clans library, they raised their eyebrows in unison at the sight of their blond teammate seemingly absorbed in searching for a particular jutsu. After a long moment, Sakura spoke up to ask, “what are you looking for, Naruto,” at her sudden question both of her teammates jumped in surprise before they glared at her in annoyance for that.

 

Naruto's annoyed glare softened after a brief moment before he replied as he turned back to his search, “I remember a scroll that was in this section that was written by my Great-Aunt about a Nara technique and I thought that Temari might like to read it but I can't seem to find it at all!” With that he huffed in frustration as he searched the next shelf, the only thing he could recall from the previous nights conversation was that the scroll was on the fifth shelf but he couldn't recall which bookcase it was in. After about five more minutes of searching he exclaimed happily, “yes! Finally,” he plucked the scroll from the shelf as he did a dance in happiness.

 

At that moment the three Suna Genins walked up and Temari leaned over to ask in a whisper, “Mother, why is Naruto dancing like that?”

 

Thanks to his sharp senses, Naruto heard the question and decided to answer it as he presented the scroll to her, “because after several hours of searching, I finally found this!” She stared down at the presented scroll in puzzlement for a few long moments before she looked at him with a raised eyebrow in a questioning way. “It's a scroll written by my Great-Aunt detailing several defensive jutsu's that a Nara friend of hers had created for her husband,” Naruto paused for a moment before he clarified, “the Nara's husband not my mom's uncle.”

 

Temari blinked at that but took the scroll from her fellow blond wind-user and walked over to an empty table to read it, while she was doing that Naruto had pointedly turned to Kankuro and said, “there are some seals in that book,” he pointed at a book sitting on a small table nearby. “It was written by a seal master, who apparently used puppets in battle and since it could be time consuming to repair puppets if they break so he made some seals to do some of the repair work for him as well as to keep them from breaking as easily.”

 

Naruto had barely gotten those words out before Kankuro had darted over to the table to start reading the book, he shrugged before he turned his attention to the bookcase to clean up the now messy shelf. However, the movement of the scrolls jostled a slim book near the edge of the bookcase, it had been placed on the very top of the case so he hadn't even seen it, the book slipped over the edge and would have hit Naruto on the head if Gaara hadn't of caught it with his sand. As the sand brought the book over to the red haired boy, the blond Jinchuuriki had blinked in surprise before he said, “thanks Gaara, getting hit over the head with a book would have smarted.”

 

Gaara hummed in agreement with that statement as he flipped through the book that nearly conked Naruto over the head as he glanced through it the red haired Suna Genin walked over to the table that his sister was sitting at and sat down to read. All three Konoha Genins shrugged at that but walked over to a table set in front of a large window so they could discuss what they would be doing when they entered the Forest of Death. After several hours of discussion the three settled on a plan, unlike the plan that had gotten them the position as Genin's on Kakashi's team this plan had been made by all three members of the team and not just consisted of Naruto's ideas.

 

Shortly after finishing their strategy session, the three were jolted out of their discussion by a loud rumbling growl that emanated from Naruto's stomach, the whiskered blond rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as his teammates along with Sasuke's kids stared at him in shock. Sasuke snickered lightly before he quipped, “there goes the human food clock, your stomach never fails to alert you that it's time for a meal!” With that said the Uchiha got up from the table and glanced around the room before he nodded decisively, “lunch time it is, kids go run and get your Father. Knowing 'Suka, he hasn't eaten either,” at that the thirteen year old rolled his eyes while his twelve year old teammates snickered over how their antisocial teammate fussed over the Kazekage.

 

As his kids left the library to go retrieve their father, all three of them putting their reading material in their weapon pouches as they did so, Sasuke had called out to them, “meet us at Ichikaru, Naruto deserves a treat for behaving during the first exam!” Naruto pouted at that but decided to send a cheetah to Neji to ask if he and his team wanted to join the two other teams for lunch, Sakura contemplated on doing the same with Sai but decided against it when she remembered that Sai was helping Iruka with his classes.

 

Shortly after arriving at the ramen stand, Team Seven was joined by Gai's team, minus their teacher, out of the three only Ten Ten had yet to meet Team Seven and their collection of friends. The weapon user gaped in shock when her teammate, normally quite aloof, distant and untouchable, snagged Naruto by the wrist to gently lead the chattering blond over to a table. The former Hyuuga silently persuaded the younger boy to sit next to the wall with Neji on his other side, Sakura slid into a seat only two spaces away from Neji leaving the spaces free for another to take. Which they promptly were by Kankuro and Hinata, with Hinata sitting next to her cousin, who was now also her half-brother via adoption Camilla had adopted Neji as her son while Hinata's father had used his blood connection to Neji to make sure that Neji's father remained the same.

 

Akasuka slid into the seat across from Naruto at Sasuke's prodding while the Uchiha claimed the seat across from Neji, Temari sat down next to her new Mother and Shikamaru sat down next to her. Kiba dropped down right next to the lazy Nara while Shino sat down next to Kiba, the two had followed Hinata when Kankuro had come by to get her, Asuma looked a bit confused by how Kurenai had dragged him along with their respective teams to the stand but sat down next to her when she sat down by Shino. Choji brushed past the gaping Tenten but snagged her by the wrist as he said cheerfully, “sit down already, Ayame won't take out orders until all of us are seated,” he prodded her to take the seat next to his Sensei before he took the seat next to her while Lee sat down beside him taking the outside seat of that side while Gaara took the outside seat across from him.

 

Shortly after that Kakashi, Iruka and Sai walked in the door, Naruto's favorite stand had gotten enough business to open an actual restaurant instead of a stand but it still went by the old name. Iruka sat down across from Kurenai while Kakashi did the same in front of Asuma while Sai sat down next to Sakura, the seats across from Choji and Tenten were taken by Baki and Kimihiro. Naruto found it amusing how Baki seemed to be protective of his uncle, said protectiveness was evident in how Baki took the seat next to Gaara in order to guard Kimihiro's left flank, even though the Sand Jounin had to be well aware that not only could the Uzumaki clan head take care of himself but that no one could get past Gaara's Sand Shield except for Lee.

 

Naruto silently snickered as he recalled how Baki would protect his Uncle from things that Kimihiro didn't need protecting from, such as the one time that a council member was glaring at the red haired seal adept. Baki had stepped in front of the older man and glared back at the council member, when he had done that Kimihiro had gained a bemused expression on his face but he seemed to be content to allow Baki the odd bout of, in Naruto's eyes, unneeded protectiveness. As he glanced down the table at his uncle, Naruto silently wondered just what his uncle had meant by his remark about how Uzumaki's had to have good controls over their tempers and just why his uncle had insisted on Naruto placing a recognition seal on his teammates, the Sabaku Siblings, Hinata and Neji.

 

Although puzzled by the demand he had done as his uncle asked but he was still curious as to why Kimihiro was so insistent that he do it, he had been given a partial answer when she overheard Baki asking his uncle as to why he had placed the same seal on the Suna Jounin. Kimihiro had told the younger man that the Uzumaki clan had a terrible tempers, bad enough that they could enter what their clan called _**the Red Haze**_ or the _**Haze**_ for short and that the chakra recognition seal would ensure that even in the midst of the _**Haze**_ that Kimihiro wouldn't try to kill Baki. Naruto had been surprised when his Uncle had mentioned that his mother, Kimihiro's older sister, had only ever once entered the _**Haze**_ and that had been shortly after her partners death. Apparently her already frayed temper had snapped when an enemy nin had remarked that her partner had run out on her, Kushina had a policy: you could insult her as much as you liked and she'd simply laugh in your face but if you dare insult her family, partner or clan...Yeah that was just a bad idea all around.

 

Naruto was jolted out of his thoughts when Neji touched his arm and asked softly, “which ramen do you want first, Naruto,” it went unsaid that Naruto would have more than one bowl, Neji's pale eyes held a look of hidden concern. The former Hyuuga had slowly begun to reveal his real personality rather than the one that he had shown to keep the main branch from using his seal to punish him. Since joining the Slytherin Clan the pale eyed teen had begun to relax, especially since if his former clan tried to punish him the older clan could demand that the person who tried be punished, even if that person was part of the Hyuuga clan council.

 

Naruto blinked wide blue eyes at him before he glanced over at Ayame and chirped, “I'll take a miso ramen to start with Ayame-Chan.”

 

She smiled brightly at the boy who her Father called their best and favorite customer, although he had confided in her that Naruto's mother had loved ramen just as much as her son. He also had told her that the main reason that Naruto got such a discount on his large ramen orders was due to the fact that his mother had saved her life when she was just a toddler. “Alright, Naruto-Kun, would you like your usual ramen after that,” she asked, she tilted her head to the side as she did so.

 

“Yes please, Ayame,” he chirped as he unconsciously leaned into Neji's side, she laughed but wrote down his order along with the orders from the rest of the table before she went back to the kitchen to give the order to her . Naruto stayed where he was as Iruka talked, actually he was complaining but most of them were pointedly ignoring that, about the pre-Genin's in his class, all of the Konoha Genins couldn't help the laugh when Iruka remarked that the Jounin's were easier to wrangle than his class.

 

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Six days later, everyone stood in front of Anko, after gathering everyone's slips she began the test and once they were through the gate, Team Seven formed shadow clones, six teams in all, before they headed toward their _playhouse_. Said playhouse was near the center of the training ground, they had built it in the canopy of seven intertwined trees and Naruto had carved seals into the trees so that if anyone, even a Hyuuga, saw it then they would ignore it as it being too tangled to attempt to navigate. However, due to their rather frequent forays into the Forest of Death the three knew that they had the advantage over the other teams and decided that they should use such an advantage as much as possible.

 

Hence the reason for the six clone teams now collecting information on the other teams as well as the other scrolls if they could, Naruto watched as Sakura flopped down on the couch in the main room with a book while Sasuke was sketching in a pad of paper. After several moments of watching Naruto settled to study a book on seals since his Uncle was going to test him to see if he was ready to be a Seal adept of his clan instead of merely as Seal Novice. Two hours later Naruto suddenly fell out of his chair with a loud yelp, he spoke in a stunned tone when his two teammates glanced over at him, “one of my summons just ate one of my clones!”

 

Thirty minutes later a large snake slid into the building via the window, as it did it hissed with a smug tone, “we apologize, Master, but we saw an opportunity that we just couldn't pass up!” At his unimpressed look the snake explained with an amused tone, “it appears that our former summoner Orochimaru either forgot about or didn't read a certain section of the contract with the serpents. Due to the first summoner's marriage there has been two clans considered untouchable by us, to attack or even try to attack a member of either of those clans and you will terminate the contract between yourself and the serpents. One of those two clans is the Uzumaki Clan, when the Uchiha clan was formed the serpents decided that despite their separate status the Uchiha clan was to be considered part of the Uzumaki Clan.”

 

The snake snickered lightly as he hissed, “when Orochimaru ordered my brethren to attack _'that Uzumaki brat'_ we took the opportunity to sever our contract with him. The next time he tries to summon one of us,” the snake seemed to give off a very smug air as he stated, “ then we simply won't answer. After all, although we were well aware that your clone was in fact a clone he was not and he still ordered the attack thus he broke the contract.”

 

Sakura stared at the still chortling snake in amusement for several long moments before she said, “in other words, Orochimaru, the legendary Snake Sannin just lost his right to be your summoner because he attacked Naruto's clone.” At the serpents nod she burst into a fit of laughter and all three males could hear her muttering to herself, “how can he be lauded as so smart when he's so stupid...or is that a prerequisite to being a S class missing nin?”

 

At that moment several people sneezed and rubbed their noses in irritation before going back to their current obsession, at the same moment both of her teammates glanced at each other with resigned expressions as they silently wondered if Sakura had always been this insane or it they had driven her to it. After a moment the two boys shrugged and went back to their previous activities, it was dark when a cheetah came in through the window carrying a scroll in it's mouth, it had a purple collar on with it's plate facing backwards.

 

The large cat blinked at the sight of the large serpent draped over Sasuke's back but dropped the scroll onto the table before she padded over to Naruto to drop down at his feet. The blond absently petted the cat as he said with an equally absent tone, “thank you, Shizuka, you can stay as long as you like, we won't be leaving for the tower until morning so you can rest here if you want.” The cat murmured her agreement and thanks before she yawned sleepily before she settled in for the night, as the cat settled in to sleep she idly wondered how Kushina planned to tell her son that his beloved Ryuu-Okasan and her were one and the same.

 

**####################################################################################**

 

As Naruto's clone was getting the chomp from one of his own summons, the Kazekage, or at least who the villagers of Konoha thought was the Kazekage, and his guards had arrived at the gatehouse. However, much to the surprise of the Konoha gate guards, neither Akasuka nor Baki bowed immediately to the man, instead Akasuka asked in a tense tone, “what did Sasuke-Chan call you three days after having informally adopting Gaara?”

 

The _**Kazekage**_ laughed before he said with the fake Kazekage duplicating, as best as he could, the tone that Akasuka used when he acted officially as the Kage of Suna, “I believe young Sasuke-Chan called me an _'unbelievably emotionally stunted, pain in her ass, Bastard with questionable habits'_ or so I recall.” When he said that both Akasuka and Baki relaxed with sighs of relief, that pass phrase had been decided before the two had left for Konoha, thus Orochimaru would not have known the answer or the question. Only Akasuka and his guards were aware of what Sasuke had called him since she had snarled it at him in the privacy of his office when she decided that he wouldn't ignore his children any longer if she had anything to say about it.

 

The pair then bowed to the false Kazekage as Akasuka stated, “welcome to Konoha, you should be pleased to note that the second test of the exam is underway.” His double nodded in a pleased fashion as he gestured for him to continue his reports as he was led to his quarters in the Uchiha compound, when Akasuka told Sasuke that he hadn't yet informed the Hokage that he was in fact the Kage of Suna the dark eyed teen had rolled around on Akasuka's bed laughing. Once the Uchiha had calmed his giggle fit he had offered to house the Kazekage's guard/escorts while they were in Konoha for the exam so that no one would realize that the Kazekage had been bullied by the thirteen year old into letting the last Uchiha house him along with his children during their stay in the village.

 

As they passed Raido, Baki was informing the Guard as to his teams progress in training, the scarred man overheard Akasuka muttering to himself under his breath, “time to go back to work, I suppose... At least I'll still be getting to see Sasuke-Chan fight but that's really the only plus,” both Raido and Genma had shrugged it off as Akasuka being one of the Suna Kage's guards.

 

Once within the shielded privacy of the house which was connected, just like all of the older houses within the Uchiha compound including Sasuke's, to the Clan library the false Kazekage dropped his act. He, along with the other two guards, knelt in front of Akasuka and said in chorus, “good day Kazekage-Sama, we're glad to see that you are well.”

 

Akasuka sighed before he said in a soft commanding tone, “rise,” as they did as he bade the red haired man rubbed his forehead wearily before he glanced over at the grinning Baki, upon seeing the grin he rolled his eyes and muttered to himself, “just keep in mind that Suna needs the Alliance with Konoha besides you don't want to upset Sasuke...” All three of the newly arrived Suna Jounins ignored Akasuka's muttering as they awaited his orders while Baki snickered over it, however he ceased laughing when Akasuka pointedly remarked, “ _Kimihiro_ ,” at that Daisuka glanced at the other two guards with a raised eyebrow but the two merely shrugged in confusion.

 

Akasuka easily ignored the byplay of his guards to state, “the negotiations for the new treaty between Suna and Konoha will not start until after the end of the exams,” he then turned to Daisuka. “Be aware that today is not the last time you will be playing at Kazekage, however you will be able to relax in this house all you'll have to be careful of is that Sasuke might drag you to his house for dinner,” as he spoke the last part he smiled wryly. He then glanced over at Baki with a mild glare as he said, “apparently it somehow got out that Sasuke sometimes drags the Kazekage to dinner if he believes that the Kazekage is working too hard.”

 

Daisuka leaned back against the wall as he said thoughtfully, “so I just need to act like I'm fond of the Uchiha...” He trailed off as he thought about that before he grinned widely as he clapped his hands together and chirped, “I can do that, easy!”

 

Baki snickered at that before he said, much to Akasuka's embarrassment, “your acting will be much easier on you to be Kazekage then it will be for Akasuka-Sama when he goes back to the Kazekage robes!” The three men raised their eyebrows at the other two men in askance at that and Baki explained with a grin, “the Lord Kazekage has been taking advantage of no one in Konoha being aware that he is in fact the Kage of Suna to allow Sasuke to dote on himself as well as their children. Of course this means when he goes back to his duties he'll have to practice saying no to Sasuke's request as long as he's wearing the robes of office,” with that Baki started laughing and after a moment the other three guards started laughing as well.

 

Once the four had gathered the torn threads of their self control, Daisuka had asked, “so, the reason that you told me to grab this,” he held up an ANBU mask that was painted to the likeness of a leopard, “mask is because you want everyone here to think that I'm you and that you're me?” When his Kazekage nodded Daisuka smirked before he said with a grin, “this is going to be one of the most intensive undercover ops that I've ever done, but damn it's going to be fun doing it!” Akasuka had chosen Daisuka as his double not only because people tended to shorten their names in the exact same way but also due to how their builds were very similar, Akasuka was a bit broader in the shoulder and slightly taller but that was easily overlooked or hidden by the robes,

 

####################################################################################

 

Temari and Kankuro watched as Gaara easily beat a team from Mist, he actually refrained from killing them which shocked the heck out of his siblings but then again their mother was a good influence on the hot headed sand user, once the other team had been properly subdued he took their scroll and checked it. Thankfully it was the proper scroll that they needed to complete the test, the three then set off so they could reach the tower in the morning since as far as they were concerned the sooner that the test was over the better. Close to dark they were settling down for the night when they spotted a cheetah making its way toward a tangled mess of trees with a scroll in it's mouth, thanks to the collar around it's neck they knew that it had to be one of Naruto's summons.

 

With a shared glance the three packed up what little they had unpacked and set off to see where the large cat had went, the three siblings silently wondered why no one had noticed this tree at the start of the exams seeing as how it was very close to the tower. What they, and Naruto, didn't realize was that when Sasuke had adopted them all the wards/seals based on blood would at least allow them partial access due to their blood connection with Sasuke and thus Naruto. Normally even summons would be affected by the seals on the tree but due to their long association and familiarity with the Uzumaki Clan the snakes along with the cheetahs could ignore the seals with ease.

 

All three Suna Genins raised an eyebrow at the large house that seemed to have grown out of the tree rather than having been built around it and considering just who Naruto's great-grandfather had been along with his Maternal Uncle's own abilities. After a brief moment to admire the way that the house had been very cleverly hidden Temari strode up to the front door and knocked firmly yet sharply on it. After a few minutes the door opened to reveal a startled Sakura, behind her the three could see their mother sprawled on the floor reading a book while a large snake was draped on her back and legs.

 

Naruto was sitting in an armchair while a cheetah slept at his feet, or rather on his feet, the blond held up his hands as if to say, ' _what can ya do,'_ which both Temari and Kankuro fully understood since Baki would have his own summons sit on a body part to get them to stay still. After she had shaken herself out of her stunned state Sakura let the three in, as she did so she asked, “so did you get your second scroll already,” while she had spoken she had sat back down in her own chair.

 

Temari sat down on the couch opposite of the other girl as she said with a smug smile, “yes we did, Gaara even refrained from killing the other team despite the insult one of them made about Mother.” She had a proud note to her voice as she said that and Sasuke's head shot up at the beginning of her statement but by the end of it he was beaming at his youngest child.

 

Sasuke then casually dislodged the serpent that had been on his back and walked over to the younger boy, as he smiled down at Gaara with a look of pride he said, “I'm very proud of you for your restraint, Panda-Chan, as I'm sure your father will be when I tell him about it.” Sasuke then pulled the red haired boy into a hug and nuzzled into the locks as he murmured, “so very, very proud of my baby boy,” Gaara blushed but eagerly accepted the blatant affection from his Mother. Kankuro grinned at the scene, he knew that if he wanted a bit of his own affection then their Mother would happily cuddle any of the three should they ask, but like Temari the puppeteer knew that Gaara needed the most reassurance and affection from their Mother than they did.

 

After a few moments of the hug, Sasuke had sighed before he said, “well if we're going to the tower before noon tomorrow we better head to bed. Gaara will be bunking with me,” he stated with a firm tone before he glanced around the room as he said, “I'll let the four of you work out the rest of the sleeping arrangements.” With that said he tugged the unresisting twelve year old behind him to his room, once inside the Uchiha tilted his head to the side as he asked his son, “male or female tonight Gaara?” Whenever Gaara bunked down with Sasuke, usually when he needed the extra reassurance that came from cuddling with his mother, Sasuke would always let him choose whether or not Sasuke would use his Oiroke form.

 

“Female, please, Mother,” he said softly as he twisted the hem of his mesh shirt as he stared up at the older nin, Sasuke just nodded before he snagged a pair of sleep pants from the dresser along with a soft silk shirt. Without an ounce of self-consciousness Sasuke changed clothes and crawled into bed while Gaara donned the soft fuzzy pants that Sasuke had given him to sleep in after the former insomniac started sleeping again. Gaara then crawled into bed beside his Mother and snuggled into the now female Uchiha's side, Sasuke had perfected the transformation so well that he no longer needed the hand-signs to do it.

 

Gaara nestled into his usual spot along Sasuke's right side, after the first few times he ended up sandwiched between his parents Gaara had opted for his Mother's right side since his Father tended to lie along his Mother's left side. Sasuke absently ran her fingers through his short red hair and hummed an old lullaby, the language it was sung in had long been lost so no one knew just what the words meant anymore but it was very soothing when sung and had been used first by the Uzumaki Clan then by the Uchiha to lull their children into sleep. Once Gaara was fast asleep Sasuke only allowed herself to join him after she had set the alarm for six o'clock in the morning, she wanted an early start so they could rest up, the dark eyed woman was well aware that anyone who arrived early would be sent home and told to come back at the scheduled end of the exam.

 

As Sasuke and Gaara settled down for the night, Sakura preempted any suggestions by either her brother or her nephew by stating, “Temari is bunking with me, Kankuro can either stay in Hinata's room,” at that statement Kankuro perked up. Sakura rolled her eyes at that but continued with, “Naruto has his own room so I bid the two of you goodnight,” she then turned away and called over her shoulder, “let's go to bed, knowing Sasuke, we'll have to be up bright and early so we will need our rest.” Both boys conceded her point with a resigned nod and watched as Sakura led Temari to their room before Naruto pointed out Hinata's room to Kankuro, the blond then went to bed himself.

 

_**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%** _

 

At six o'clock the alarm clock started beeping, Sasuke's left eye opened and she slapped the clock to stop the beep she then stretched sleepily causing a disgruntled mutter to come from Gaara. She smiled fondly down at her son before she carefully extracted herself from his embrace, she then padded over to the dresser and pulled out an outfit that consisted of flexible skin tight pants, a sleeveless shirt with a manderian style collar. She wrapped red bandages around her hands as well as her forearms up to her elbows before she wrapped the same color bandages around her feet, ankles and lower legs, she then brushed out her hair before she put it up in a ponytail.

 

Once her hair was put up, she walked out to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, which due to the time constraints would have to be quick, easy and filling, as soon as the meal was prepared she rapped on Sakura's door as she called out, “Sakura, Temari, it's time for breakfast!” The dark haired teen heard two thumps and groans from the two girls so she headed for Naruto's room, however Naruto poked his head out of the doorway and waved sleepily so she continued on to knock on Hinata's door as she called out, “time to get up, Kankuro or you'll miss breakfast!”

 

This time she heard a sudden thump as Kankuro yelped, he then called out in a sheepish tone, “okay, Mom, I'm up!”

 

She shook her head and laughed softly as she opened her bedroom door she then stood in the doorway, as she did she gazed at her youngest son for several moments before she walked over to the bed. She then leaned over and gently shook his shoulder as she did she softly said, “it's time to get up, Panda-Chan,” she got a muttered whine from him and she laughed softly before she said, “sorry baby, but you have to get up if you want breakfast.” With that Gaara looked up at her with a sleepy pout on his face, a smile crossed hers and she tapped his nose as she said fondly, “as adorable as that look is, you still have to get up.”

 

He grumbled but got out of the bed and headed to the bathroom for a shower, all of the five Suna nins had come to adore the shower over the bath and Sasuke was certainly not going to be the one to ask Naruto just how their tree-house had fully functional showers despite not having any plumbing. Sasuke shook her head and pulled out an outfit for Gaara from his pack, she then knocked on the bathroom door to tell him about it after she placed it on the bed.

 

The six Genins left the tree-house at eight thirty and headed toward the tower, along the way they spotted an Iwa team, normally they would have ignored the other team, especially since the two teams already had their second scroll. However one of the three Iwa Genins made a remark that had the puppet user seething in rage and his siblings very annoyed at them. Temari and Gaara had grown fond of the shy, quiet and gentle former Hyuuga and no one, **no one** , insulted Hinata in front of Kankuro, as he had once remarked while having Karasu holding someone who had made that very same mistake, _**“I consider Hinata-Chan to be very dear to my heart and an insult to her is to be considered an insult to me!”**_ He had smiled viciously as he had said with flinty green eyes, _**“and insulting me is a very good way to get me angry, ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you, 'Don't make Kankuro angry if you can help it because you won't like him when he's angry!'”**_

 

For team Seven, Hinata was like a kid sister as such she was someone to be protected even if she was fully capable of taking care of herself, for both Naruto and Sasuke, Hinata was a distant relative thanks to the Hyuuga blood in the Uchiha bloodline. Of course, the same was now true for Sakura thanks to her adoption into both clans, besides the shy girl had started, very slowly, to assert her own opinions about things. An action aided by the blatant approval of her new Mother, Neji, Naruto and Kankuro, so for this idiotic scum to leeringly state that he'd happily, ' _bang that meek Hyuuga bitch,'_ the first chance he'd get, merely caused their tempers to ignite.

 

All three Iwa Genins gulped when they suddenly felt an immense wave of Killing Intent directed at them from the trees directly above them, when they looked up they all saw six Genins, three from Suna and three from Konoha. One of the two boys from Sand was wearing a hood and Kabuki make up, he was glaring at them as if they had just personally insulted him while beside him was the second boy who was staring at them with rage filled green eyes. As he stared at them the blank faced teen tilted his head to the side before he asked casually, “may I kill him, Mother, for the insult to the woman who will one day be my sister-in-law should my Brother succeed in courting her?”

 

To their surprise the dark haired boy of the Konoha team answered the red haired boy by stating, “you can kill him but only after your brother and I am finished with him.” With that said his black eyes changed to a very familiar appearance, all villages still taught about the Uchiha clan even if there were only supposed to be two members still alive, and all three blanched in horror. The black on red eyes caught the boy who had made the comment about Hinata, to the shock of his teammates he immediately began to scream in terror and pain as he fell writhing to the ground after two minutes of this the Uchiha closed his eyes and released the Iwa nin from the Genjutsu, however he was still twitching from the mental pain. “He's all yours, Kankuro-Chan, please let Gaara-Chan know when he's free to kill that miserable wretch,” Sasuke said absently to the puppeteer as he turned away to go stand next to his teammates.

 

Kankuro grinned maliciously as he purred out, much like his summons did when they were asked to do something that they truly enjoyed doing, “as you wish my dearest Mother.” At that he stalked forward and used chakra strings to pull the now whimpering Iwa Genin toward him while the other two trembled in terror that they would be next as well as the vicious look in those green eyes.

 

**####################################################################################**

 

Anko glanced up at the blood curdling scream that echoed throughout the Forest of Death, she raised an eyebrow at Genma and Hyate as she asked, “do either of you have an idea as to just what caused that?” Both men shook their heads with baffled expression on their faces, although screams of pain and fear were quite common in the Forest of Death screams that continued as long as that one had never, ever happened before. After a long moment to allow the silence that had come after the scream to weigh heavy on the air Anko said slowly, “I suppose we should go check out just who was, in the interest of diplomatic relations of course.”

 

Both Genma and Hyate sighed at her glee but were well aware that she was right, if they didn't check it out and it turned out that whoever it was that screamed could have been saved if they did then all hell would break loose, despite the waiver that all the Genins signed yesterday. Thus with a sigh the two men followed her into her favorite haunt, thirty minutes later they came across two Iwa Genin, the pair were clutching at each other as they stared at a gleaming white skeleton in the center of the clearing. After a moment Genma cleared his throat, to his shock the two Genin's leapt in surprise as they screamed in terror, he blinked before he asked, “just what in the nine hells happened here?”  
  


The two turned their wide terrified eyes toward him before the Kunochi whispered, “he angered them and paid for that with his life,” she was trembling in remembered fear as she had spoken and no matter how much the three Konoha Shinobi prodded the pair neither of them would say anything else about what happened beyond that. Finally the three older nins gave up on getting anymore information out of them and after sealing the bones in a scroll they headed for the tower since in was closer to them than the gates. Numbly the two shell shocked teens followed them, as they did the two prayed that they wouldn't run into those six other Genins' again and if they did then they prayed that they would be far beneath their notice.

 

**####################################################################################**

 

Hiruzen held back a sigh as he wondered why the other Kages had decided to arrive so early, in fact the only Kages whose Genin were in the exam were the Oto and Iwa Kages. Even the Raikage, who had long since refused to attend any Chuunin Exam held in Konoha until now, was present with two guards. From what he could tell the two guards were both Jinchuuriki, well he knew Killer B was a Jinchuuriki however he was fairly sure that the girl that accompanied them was also a Jinchuuriki. Besides the three Kages and their guards, in the office was four Konoha Jounin along with a Suna Jounin, Kurenai was near the open window along with Asuma who was smoking a cigarette while Gai was leaning against the wall.

 

For once the exuberant man was quiet, everyone put that down to worry over his three students and they would be right, he was very concerned about them. Kakashi was slouched by the door along with Baki, who was near the Kazekage, not the real one since Akasuka had declared that since he was children free for the foreseeable future he was going to get blind drunk. Baki knew that his Kage was merely trying to valiantly ignore his attraction to a thirteen year old but the Suna Jounin wasn't about to point out what Akasuka already knew. Besides it was plain that the Kazekage's feelings were more than mere lust or all of Suna would have killed their Kage the first time he had stared after Sasuke with less than pure thoughts in his mind.

 

Funnily enough all three visiting Kages were hashing out new treaties between their villages and Konoha, one of the concessions that Kiri made in their treaty was that the bounties on any missing nin from Kiri that either married a Konoha Citizen or swore a loyalty to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Luckily the current Mizukage was very accommodating about that, in fact she informed them that she had already lifted the bounties from the heads of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist since they had only been trying to save their people from their tyrant of a Kage.

 

Just as Shikaku and Inochi walked in, Kakashi's head rose up, he had a puzzled look in his eyes as he said, “huh, my kids activated their scroll...” He scratched the back of his head before he shrugged as he closed his book and said with a grin, hidden though it was by his mask, “well, I guess I better check up on those three!”

 

Baki felt a jolt, much like the one that Kakashi had received, so he said with a smile, “wait up, Hatake, looks like my brats also opened their scroll.” With that the two men vanished from sight, one in a whirl of sand the other in a whirl of leaves, the rest of the room was left behind to blink in shock since no one, since the beginning of the Chuunin Exams, had ever completed the second test this fast before. If those two teams had actually completed the test then they had to be a force to reckon with, just as Shikaku had been about to suggest that he go check on the two Jounin's and their teams Gai had spoke up.

 

“Perhaps it would be best if we help them go check up on their students,” he said with a soft voice.

 

When the Hokage glanced at the other three Kage's, only the Kazekage declined to come along, “I'm afraid I need to finish going over the reports that Baki and Sabaku-San made.” At his words the other Kage's winced in sympathy, the one thing that all Kage's hated with a passion was their paperwork, pretty much the only one that hadn't was the Yondaime Hokage but that was due to the fact that he had his shadow clones do it instead. Thus when they left the Hokage tower by the Shishun the False Kazekage headed off to the Uchiha Library via the same jutsu while the others headed for the Forest of Death.

 

When they arrived they found Team Seven and Team Sand speaking to their respective Sensei's, the Mizukage and Raikage both stared in shock at the six kids. The Mizukage was stunned that these six had completed the test in one and a half days, which had to be a record but the Raikage was shocked by the male form of Sasuke since as far as he was aware the Uchiha was a girl. Before anyone could question the group about how they finished so swiftly Sasuke yelped as he clamped a hand over the left junction of his neck and shoulder, as he did he had a disgusted look on his face as if someone had just done something that he considered vile.

 

All three Suna Genin shot the dark eyed teen a worried glance before Temari asked in a hesitant tone, “are you alright, Mother,” her usage of the word Mother caused the non Konoha Shinobi to goggle at her in shock.

 

Sasuke winced at the way his muscles twinged with the remembered pain of his clone but nodded as he replied, “yes, Temari, I'm alright,” he then scrunched his nose in an obviously disgusted manner before he smoothly transformed to his female form. As he did he stated with a sneer, “a pedophile merely attempted to give me a hickey but he didn't realize that it was a clone. Sasuke then shuddered delicately before she said with a slightly leer as she thought of Akasuka, which caused her teammates along with the three Suna Genin to roll their eyes at her antics, “I do so prefer red heads to brunettes, after all they are so much more fun,” her eyes then gained a crafty look as she slyly asked over her shoulder at the forest, “right, Hinata-Chan?”

 

At her question Team Ten showed up at the edge of the clearing around the tower with Neji's teams swiftly entering from the east of the tower. Before Hinata could answer Sasuke's question an exuberant Lee did by saying with hidden smug tone, “correct you are, Sasuke-Kun,” he did a cartwheel as he stated with a grin, “red heads are more fun!” Only those who knew Gaara will spotted the faint blush on his face at that declaration and Sasuke got a calculating look on her face as she glanced between the pair.

 

Both the Raikage and the Mizukage blinked at that declaration but their calculating glances turned into shocked stares when Anko, Genma and Hyate led the two Iwa Genin's into the clearing around the tower. Upon seeing Sasuke, Gaara and Kankuro the two Genins started whimpering in fear their reaction had caused Kakashi, along with Baki, to give the Uchiha and her two sons a considering stare. As Kakashi assessed his student and her sons, the Hokage questioned the three escorting Jounins as to where the third Iwa Genin was but before Anko could tell him about the skeleton Kakashi abruptly asked, “what did you three do? And just why did you do it?”

 

At the sudden questions everyone, except Teams Seven and Sand of course, boggled at the silver haired Jounin as he stared at his team with a frown hidden under his mask, despite his heavy stare none of the three looked the slightest bit unnerved by it. Sasuke gave her sensei a thin smile as she said with a vicious tone, “he insulted both my kin and my kith when by insulting his chosen mate, I merely made my displeasure of this known to him. My sons merely made sure he paid for the insult toward their family in the best way possible, after all the desert is not kind to those who insult it,” her eyes flashed in anger as she remembered just what the other Genin had said while both Gaara and Kankuro look nonchalant as they stood on either side of their mother.

 

Kakashi then glanced at Anko as he stated rather then asked, “they killed the third Iwa Genin didn't they,” Anko nodded in response bemused despite herself that he was able to guess that fact so easily.

 

**%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%**

 

In the end it took just under three hours for the details to be gleaned from the three unrepentant Genins terse words. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon which way you looked at it, the dead Iwa Genin had been despised by his own team as well as the fact that he was an orphan so only his team and sensei had to be informed of his death. Unknown to Konoha the Iwa Genin's two teammates planned to put in their note that he had died due to his own stupidity and loose tongue, he should have never spoken of his twisted desires like that aloud. Especially since both the civilians and Shinobi were bragging about how Kankuro was courting Hinata as well as buzzing over it in anticipation over what the puppet user would do next to win her hand.

 

Admittedly it had taken several civilian women overhearing a pair of Kunochi sighing over how romantic Kankuro was being, what with how he was showing off his suitability as a suitor before even beginning the chase as well as how respectable he was being. Yet another pair of civilians had overheard several retired Shinobi reminiscing over how Kankuro was acting much like how Lord Arashi Senju, Tsunade's father, had when he courted his beloved wife, Kimiko. After that the civilians had started paying attention to the conversations of the Shinobi and were startled at just what a member, even a non Shinobi member, of a Clan considered to be a romantic gesture. One of which that had startled them so much had been that they considered either teaching of an art that their intended didn't know but was interested in as a romantic gesture as well as the gift of a weapon or the means to make a weapon.

 

A giggling conversation between two women, both civilians, married to a Nara and a Yakamana respectively had caused the civilians that overheard it to begin considering a remembered fact. That fact was that Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, had gifted Kushina Uzumaki with a pair of swords which were currently being wielded by Naruto Uzumaki, who they had just found out was in fact her son after all even the most willfully blind civilian couldn't deny it when her own brother declared it as fact. The two women had been watching Neji Slytherin, formerly Hyuuga, practicing with the pole-arm that Naruto had just gave him a few hours before he began practicing, the Nara had grinned as she had said while nudging her friend, “that was a classic Uzumaki courtship gesture.”

 

Her friend had giggled as she gave a conceding nod before she said cheerfully, “indeed it is and if I'm not mistaken that particular Pole-arm was forged by his mother's own Aunt.”

 

After the discussions concerning the Iwa Genin were over Gaara had latched onto Sasuke's arm as he asked softly, “can I spend the night at Lee's house, Mother?”

 

Sasuke paused for several moments as she clearly considered her son's request of her before she finally said, “alright, but you are to be home by no later than three in the afternoon or you will be grounded for three weeks after the exams are over.” Gaara had swiftly agreed and, to the amusement of the rest of the Genin, even the Iwa Genin, dragged Lee away from the tower. Sasuke then caught the glance that Kankuro gave her before he had tilted his head toward Hinata with a raised eyebrow, after a moment to consider the silent question that her son posed Sasuke had nodded. She then remarked aloud for the group, “Kankuro, I believe that you were invited to dinner at the Slytherin Clan house,” his green eyes widened in shock but nodded in both response to his mother question as well as conceding to her wish that he bend to the request.

 

Temari, on the other hand, was startled when Shikaku had stared at her, she shifted in place nervously, as she did she thought to herself, _'damn, his assessing stare is the exact same as Shika-Chan's!'_ After a brief moment of assessing the blond fan wielder, Shikaku stated in a bemused but approving tone, “so you're the girl that has my son in such a tizzy...” Her eyes widened when she realized that this man was her Nara's father, her blue eyes widened even further when he bluntly asked, “would you like to have dinner with me and my wife? Yoshino has been wanting to meet the girl who has so managed to frustrate our son,” his lips twisted in wry amusement as he recalled how his son had commented during dinner one night that his current Shoji partner was more stubborn than and scarier than his mom.

 

After a moment to consider his request, during which time she had glanced over at her mother, Temari agreed to his request and allowed Shikaku to lead her away from the tower toward his Clan's compound. While the two walked away Naruto had commented, “well, I'm going to go read a few scrolls that are in my own Clan's library,” he glanced over at the white eyed boy next to him as he asked, “want to come along?” With a glance at her the blond haired boy asked Tenten if she wanted to come as well, Sakura had already raced off to find Sai or he would have asked her along as well, after a moment to consider it the two agreed to accompany him.

 

When Naruto had glanced over at Sasuke questioningly the Uchiha had shrugged at her cousin as she said in a amused tone, “I'm going to head home and spend a little bit of quiet time with Akasuka.” With that she turned around and headed toward her home, meanwhile Naruto had led Neji and Tenten to the Uzumaki Compound, it was the first time that Tenten had set foot inside of it, as they walked past one of the houses Naruto felt his Uncle's chakra inside, the feel of it indicated that he was at rest but awake.

 

 

 

 


	25. Chapter Twenty-Four: Of Drunk Kages, Conversations and Promises.

**Chapter Twenty-Four:** _Of Drunk Kages, Conversations and Promises._

 

 

As she walked away from the tower Sasuke shook her head, while she strolled toward the village she contemplated what she would do now since all three of her kids weren't going to be home for the night. Nor would Baki be home since she remembered Kimihiro wanted to talk to him about something or another she hadn't been paying that particular attention to them at the time she overheard the conversation. She halted halfway across a bridge that was over a small stream, she stared out at the water before she hopped up on the one foot wide wooden rail and sat down to contemplate over whether or not she should make dinner or just go get some take-out. A few civilians noticed her sitting on the rail but left her alone since it was rather common to see 'Sora' sitting on a bridge thinking, she did it often enough that it was something that no one thought about anymore. Finally she got up off of the rail as the sun was setting, she then headed to Akasuka's favorite restaurant once she ordered the meal, it was prepared and she paid for it. She then headed for home with it, when Sasuke spotted she decided to take advantage of not having to open the door and slipped through it.

 

As she set the boxed meals down onto the counter, she frowned in puzzlement since Akasuka's chakra was fluctuating oddly, she took the food from the counter and put it in the oven to keep it warm before she went off to look for the older Shinobi. She wound her way through the house before she finally found him in her room curled up on her bed snoozing while clutching at her pillow, the teen blinked at the sight in front of her before she frowned since his chakra wasn't quite right for sleep. Instead of the usual slow, steady and evenly paced waves that normally pulsed when he was sleeping his Chakra was erratic, coming at random intervals and lengths. She padded over to him on silent feet having abandoned her sandals in the hallway beside the kitchen near the front door, however it spoke of his deep trust in her that he didn't even stir at feeling her chakra near him, once she was close enough to him the dark eyed teen could smell both Sake and that rather strange clear brew that Suna produced from Cactus plants*.

 

Sasuke brushed back the bangs hanging into Akasuka's eyes, as she did she frowned since Akasuka rarely indulged in drinking and when he did the liquor would barely show itself in his scent since he never drank to excess, this was due to the fact that he disliked being that vulnerable to attack. He absently nuzzled her palm as his green eyes slowly opened and he sleepily blinked up at her, Sasuke could tell by the look in his hazy eyes that he was still drunk, this suspicion was confirmed by how he merely dropped his head down as he muttered to himself, “by the gods above and below, you are pathetic Akasuka no Sabaku! Not only did you stupidly fall in love with a thirteen year old, which is disturbing in and of itself, you've started to hallucinate about said teen,” he then looked back up at Sasuke to see her raise an eyebrow at him with an affronted expression. He gulped, even if she was a hallucination he didn't want to make any version of Sasuke angry after all he had seen first hand just what she could do when angered sufficiently, he then all but stuttered out, “not that I'm not happy to see you but I really do prefer reality to any sort of fantasy.”

 

Since he had covered his eyes with his left hand, Akasuka missed the pleased look that crossed the Uchiha's face at finally hearing the answer as to just why the Kazekage was drunk in the first place along with the reason as to why Akasuka acted so oddly around her. After allowing him to hide for several moments Sasuke tapped him on the shoulder and he glanced up at her in confusion, she smiled at the adorable expression that his confusion caused to cross his face before she stated in a firm tone, “I'm not a hallucination, 'Suka, my team finished the second test early.” He stared up at her blankly at that she then mock frowned at him before she said in a teasing manner, “I'm very disappointed in you, my dear 'Suka, after all if you're going to get drunk you should have done more than merely mope on my bed. Just for that I'm sleeping in your bed tonight,” her dark gaze narrowed as she said darkly, “and don't even think about trying to get out of our discussion tomorrow, you're talking to me even if I have to chain you to your bed to get you to stay still for it!”

 

Akasuka swallowed thickly before he told her in a slightly strangled tone, “somehow, I don't think that threat should sound as enticing a prospect as it does...”

 

Sasuke looked amused at that as she stared down at him from where she was standing beside her bed, as she did the Kazekage was blinking up at her in a dazed manner, she then leaned down again and once again brushed his bangs out of his eyes. She then murmured, “you really are too cute when you are drunk like this, good thing you don't get this drunk very often or I'd have to fight off over half of the single population of Konoha and I really rather doubt that the Hokage would appreciate me maiming or killing that many people...”

 

Akasuka laughed softly as he snuggled back into her covers, which was permeated with her scent since she hadn't bothered to change the sheets or covers before the second test, before he said with a sleepy smile, “yeah, I really do doubt that Hiruzen would like that very much.” As he had spoken his eyes had slipped shut, her own eyebrows shot up in bemusement when she heard him mumble under his breath, “after all, Kushina-San always complained that he never let her have any fun...” With that said he slipped quietly into slumber as he did he cuddled Sasuke's pillow close to his face, eventually his pleased murmurs gave way to a soft, so soft that Sasuke could barely hear it, but rhythmic snore.

 

Sasuke shook her head at him but carefully pulled her blanket up to Akasuka's chin before giving him a gentle kiss on his forehead, as she pulled away she hesitated before leaning back down to kiss him lightly on the lips, she blushed furiously as she backed away toward the bathroom that connected their rooms. Once inside the bathroom with the door closed she leaned against the door and muttered to herself, “oh boy, what are you up to Sasuke, he's eighteen years older than you...then again you have claimed his children as your own, adopted them and all but staked a permanent claim on him to his entire village...” As she murmured she pushed away from the door and made her way to Akasuka's dresser, she then riffled through the drawers and smiled gleefully as she snagged a shirt out of the third drawer. She undressed then redressed in the shirt that she retrieved from the dresser, it was a deep red, so dark that it almost appeared black, and it hung around her slender frame loosely. Sasuke then padded downstairs to eat before she put away Akasuka's portion of the meal, as she ate the teen carefully plotted how to start the conversation that she was determined to to have with him tomorrow morning, finally she decided to go to sleep so she put away her dishes to wash tomorrow before she headed upstairs.

 

With a large yawn she crawled under the covers on his bed without even thinking about it, she had snagged his pillow and curled up around it as she slipped into slumber. A small pleased smile curved her lips as she inhaled the scent clinging to both the covers and the pillow, the scent was one that she only associated with Akasuka, it was a mixture of sun-warmed stone, lotus tea and fresh mint leaves. As she nuzzled even further into the pillow she caught a faint scent of the sea, she had caught the same subtle scent on not only her three children but what was puzzling her the most was the fact that she caught the scent on both Naruto and Kimihiro but they both had a much higher concentration of the scent than the Sabaku family had.

 

Sleepily Sasuke wondered if one of Naruto's clan ever married into the Sabaku clan or perhaps even founded it, she had noticed an uncanny resemblance between both the Uzumaki and the Sabaku families, Naruto had quite a few photo albums in the Uzumaki clan library and he had found a few Sabaku's in more than one bingo book in the Uchiha library. There had been one photo that everyone swore was the photo of an Uzumaki, the name of the person had been ripped out but they had found another book that held the name of the person and it was Karina Sabaku, daughter of Arasa and Farin Sabaku. It had been noted that she was unmarried but had two sons by unknown fathers, one son had blond hair with deep black eyes while her other son had his mothers deep red hair and breathtaking green eyes, Akasuka had recognized the picture of his great-great-great Grandmother and his great-great Grandfather.

 

All that she know was that the Uzumaki clan who had the scent of the sea in their base scent, it was like how the Uchiha clan had a woodsy or smokey scent to them, Sasuke had always caught a whiff of that same scent in Naruto's base scent and when it was revealed that his own maternal grandmother was an Uchiha the smokey undertone to Naruto's scent made perfect sense. Kimihiro also had a smokey undertone to his own scent that was much stronger than his nephews but since he was the son and not merely a grandson of an Uchiha it made sense that the scent be stronger in him than Naruto.

 

After she had been adopted into both Clans, Sakura had gained the same mix as Naruto but she didn't have the same undercurrents of cordite and anise that Naruto had to his base scent, no one could figure out who Naruto got the anise scent from since his father had a base scent of cordite but no anise in his scent. Funnily enough, Kakashi also had the same undercurrent of anise in his base scent but there was no blood linking the pair as far as anyone knew, after all the Hatake and Uzumaki clans had never intermarried nor had fathered children with each other, heck they had never even been partnered before Kushina and Sakumo.

 

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As her mother contemplated on whether or not to pick up or fix dinner, Temari eyed Shikaku while she followed him to the Nara Clan compound, she had paid a visit there only once before but that had been when she had been trying to find Shikamaru so she could either challenge him to a Game of Shoji or to drag him shopping, his choice. She had ventured only slightly inside the compound and had asked once of the Nara's where she might find the younger Genin, the woman had smiled lazily before she had told the blond girl that she would likely find him either at the river, training with his team or over at Choji's house napping. She had later located him by the river, he had never asked her how she had found him so she never informed him of visiting the clan compound, she had found him watching the clouds and upon being given the two options he quickly chose Shoji. He had taken her to his Sensei's house for the match since he couldn't bare to hear the squealing over future grandchildren that would no doubt ensue if he brought her home to play the game.

 

Unknown to her and Shikamaru, the woman that she had asked where she might find the younger Genin had told Yoshino about the blond girl that asked after her son. Yoshino had been startled when she found out that said girl was a Suna Genin but was more amused by how her son tried, and failed, to hide just how much he liked the blond fan user. One time when he had just come home from seeing her, he didn't realize that his mom was home, he had grumbled about troublesome women who were more annoying than his mother, Yoshino had held in the snicker at the fondness hidden in his voice. Word had quickly spread through the clan that Shikamaru was sweet on a blond that wasn't Ino, thus when Shikaku led Temari into the compound almost everyone who saw them was well aware that she was the most likely candidate for Shikamaru's wife, pending Yoshio's approval of course.

 

If Shikaku was taking her home to introduce her to Yoshio then he had to approve of her and wouldn't mind if she married his son, that was a point in her favor. If Shikamaru's own grumblings were any indication then she was the most likely choice, this was due to how despite how much a Nara Clan member protested or declared that they'd never marry anyone that was like their mother. However, inevitable it seemed sometimes to outsiders, every Nara member eventually fell head over heels in love with someone that they would declare was even worse than their mother. After all, it took a stubborn, and thus troublesome, person to be able to stand toe to toe with a Nara much less love the blasted genius, some people joked that being geniuses was the Nara's true Bloodline Limit which in turn allowed them to create the Shadow manipulation that they were known for.

 

Temari was still dressed in the outfit she had worn to fight in, the outfit was the kimono that Sasuke had bought her on the first shopping trip when he had returned to Konoha, however he had the shop embroider the Uchiha clan symbol on the back of the kimono. However, it was not the symbol that caught everyone's attention, after all it was quite well known that Temari and her brothers were adopted by Sasuke as his children, as well as him taking the place of their mother, the thing that caught their collective attention was the fan slung over her shoulder. It was made of metal and stood as tall as her shoulder if placed on the ground beside her. It hadn't been until he stood near her that Shikaku had noticed that her eyes weren't actually black but were in fact a deep blue, either that or her black eyes had a blue tint to them much like a ravens feathers.

 

The fact that she carried a fan meant that she likely had a very strong wind affinity, something very common with Suna Shinobi, which meant that she was likely to be a long distance fighter rather than an up close in your face fighter. Unknown to them all, Kimihiro had remarked that although his sister had loved close quarter combat over long distance she had been very well versed in long ranged combat, he actually joked that if his sister could have she would have owned a weapon that allowed her to do both styles without switching weapons. Her reasoning for her flexible style was that if you were well known for a particular style then being equally as good at it's opposite would catch any of her enemies who tried to take advantage of a particular weakness off guard. She had been right of course, much to Sakumo's chagrin, since she had won almost all of her fights, she had never considered the times that her foes fled in terror as a win or a loss, but instead counted it as a draw.

 

Yoshino watched as her husband led the girl to their house, Temari eyed the older woman with an assessing gaze, which was yet another point for her since she hadn't underestimated Yoshino, the dark eyed woman had dismissed several girls interested in her son for assuming that she was meek or mild despite her son and husbands many, rather loud, complaints of her stubborn nature. And although Temari had bowed in respectful greeting to her, the blond had not done so in an overly submissive manner, when she had straightened up from the bow the fan user had tilted her head up as she stared Yoshino in the eye. Silently declaring to the older woman; _'I may respect you but don't you dare think I'll bow to your whims,'_ Yoshino's eyes gleamed in pleasure at the younger nin's defiant nature and gesture. Temari then stated something that shocked everyone that was listening since it implied that both of her parents approved of the match between the two Genins, “my Mother and Father send their greetings, they also bid me to give this to you as a gift from them...”

 

Akasuka had taken one look at his daughter going on about Shikamaru before he had sighed and handed a scroll over to Temari about two weeks before the Chuunin exams as he said, “when the Nara clan invites you to dine with them please do tell them that I send my greetings and that I wished for them to have this.”

 

Both Yoshino and Shikaku had raised an eyebrow at the two scrolls, Sasuke had given her a similar scroll with the same statement to Akasuka's, but took the pair from her and when they opened the one from Akasuka it took everything they had not to gasp in surprise. Contained in it was a very favorable trade contract for the Nara's with Suna the contract was for rare medicinal items that only Suna seemed to be able to obtain. Sasuke's scroll on the other hand was a storage scroll that contained copies of several scrolls, including the one that Naruto found for Temari, that were rare and quite frankly to be lost. The gifts told the couple that no only did Akasuka and Sasuke approve of the match but also told them that both the Sabaku and the Uchiha clans would be happy to give aide to the Nara without asking for anything in return even if the two Genin didn't marry.

 

Yoshino smiled at the younger woman, a rare sight where the girls perusing her son was concerned, before she said, “I welcome you to my home, Temari no Sabaku-Uchiha,” despite the fact that none of the three had yet to display any blatant Uchiha traits they still had both clan names conjoined verbally, Yoshino's dark eyes gleamed well hidden satisfaction as she happily stated, “you are welcome and protected amongst my clan, please tell both your parents that I also extend the invitation to them along with your siblings.” The nearest Nara clan members could hardly contain their shock at her invitation to the blond, with it even if the courtship between Temari and Shikamaru didn't end in marriage then the group would still be welcome in the Nara compound.

 

Since it was still three hours until dinner Yoshino had suggested to the pair that Shikaku show Temari where the clan training grounds were along with certain points of interest for most visitors of the clan. Although he grumbled lightly the scarred Jounin obeyed his wife's request and led her to the training ground, which was hardly ever used during the mid day instead it saw more use at dawn or dusk. When she spotted an obstacle course in the training ground she asked if she could try it out, unknown to Temari it had been designed by Naruto's mother when Shikaku had kept figuring out where all of the traps were in the ANBU course.

 

As such the course was a hell of a lot tougher and thanks to the many seals that Kushina had at her disposal it never remained the same from one session to another, a fact that frustrated the Nara clan to no end, as such no one had ever completed the course. Shikaku was bemused at her question but said, “sure, if you really want to try it out go right ahead,” several of the Nara's around them gathered to watch as she placed her fan in a storage scroll as she prepared to start the course. Several moments later the group watching were surprised when Temari had yet to falter in either her speed or course, she dodged spring loaded javelins and ducked under the swing of a blade that, had she not as good of reflexes that she did, would have taken her head clean off.

 

An hour after starting the course, one and a half after meeting Yoshino, Temari exited the course with only minor cuts and bruises to mark her as having attempted the course. She was holding a necklace in her left hand when she exited the course, when she was close enough the group could tell that the pendant was a weasel with an eye-patch over it's left eye. It was sitting on the back of a Nara deer, the blonds lips were quirked upward in a smile of bemusement and she held up the pendant to Shikaku as she asked, “any particular reason that this was hanging near the exit, Nara-San?”

 

Shikaku huffed a laugh as he tapped the image before he remarked in a clearly amused tone, “I suspect that my Sensei had something to do with it since she is the one who designed that monstrosity of an obstacle course.” He paused as he stared at the one eyed weasel sitting on the deers back before he said after a long moment of silence, “near as I can figure the deer is a symbol for our clan since we are well known for caring for them but I can't tell you what the weasel stands for.”

 

Temari snorted before she bit her thumb and with a few quick movements summoned her favorite summon to the shock of the Nara, really her ability to shock the Nara was beginning to unsettle the clan as a whole, a weasel wearing an eye-patch over it's left eye appeared next to the blond. She knelt down and scratched the weasel behind the ears as she said with a soft smile, “hey there Kamatari, look,” she held the pendant in front of the weasel as she said, “it's you,” the weasel purred lightly as he stood on his hind legs to grasp the pendant with his forepaws. Her dark blue eyes glittered in amusement as she asked cheerfully, “so do you think I should wear it, old friend,” he looked up at her then back to the pendant he was holding before looking back up at her as he nodded and chattered cheerfully.

 

“Well, alright then,” she said before she put the necklace on, as she stood up she had held out a hand to the weasel, he quickly grabbed it and clambered up her arm, with the ease of long practice, onto her shoulders. He clung to her clothes as she rolled her shoulders to settle his weight more comfortably, however she easily bore the slight weight due to long practice. When Temari, Shikaku and Kamatari got back to the Head Nara's house the weasel dropped down from her shoulders onto the rail of the porch, he walked along the rail until he reached a chair, whereupon he dropped down into it, he then curled up in a ball and after a quick pet to her summons, Temari went inside to have dinner with her Shoji partners' parents.

 

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As his sister headed toward the Nara compound, Kankuro trudged after Hinata and Baki, the former Hyuuga heiress ignored the side glances she was getting from the village populous. Instead she spoke with his teacher quietly about the up coming third test and just what it might consist of, the green eyed teen was listening with half an ear to the conversation while most of his attention was caught by how Hinata's movements weren't so restricted and measured anymore. It seemed that her new family, and their training methods, agreed with her far more than her old clan, when she turned her pale lavender eyes toward him the puppet user couldn't help flashing her a grin, which in turn caused and even larger smile to cross her face before she returned her gaze to his sensei.

 

As he walked toward the entrance to the Uzumaki/Slytherin compound Kankuro felt a familiar weight land on his right shoulder and sure enough, when he glanced at his right shoulder he saw a black two tailed cat with white markings. The cats eyes were a pale blue while it's markings consisted of stripes along its cheeks, from it's forehead to the nape of its neck, a v along its chest along with a pair of marks near it's waist which caused it to look like it had a very small waist. His final markings was along his thighs, four parallel slashes on each thigh, the marks along his jaw were broad at the hinge of his jaw and narrowed to a sharp downward point at his chin while his eyes were lined, much like how the Egyptians lined their eyes with Kohl.

 

Between the two downward points leading from the hinge of his jaw was a slash of three marks, one line appeared to continue upward to his nose before it split into two along either side of it to connect to the lines around his eyes. The other two lines of the three slashes also continued upward and they connected with the lines beneath his eyes, the ones along his forehead wee slightly above the lines around his eyes. It consisted of three marks and were oval shaped, the middle contained a black oval patch of fur and the other two marks curved around the third. The rest of his head and neck marks were simple lines that curved around his ears then down his neck before ending at the nape, two lines curved around his shoulders to make the v shaped mark on his chest.

 

Kankuro smiled at the cat and scratched him behind his ears as he said softly, “hey there, buddy, it's good to see you,” the cat purred deeply in his chest as he butted his head along the puppeteers fingers as they scratched along his jaw.

 

As he was still purring, giving his voice an odd duel tone as he spoke, the cat replied to his summoners comment, “it is good to see you as well, Master Kankuro. Did the test go well,” he asked as he twisted his body to present Kankuro a different location to which to scratch.

 

Kankuro nodded absently in answer to the question as he murmured back, “yeah, well...truth be told the second test isn't over just yet, it just is that my team finished the objective of the test early so we got sent home until it is over.” He rolled his eyes as he said softly, “Shikamaru's father invited Temari to his house for the evening meal as well as to meet his wife,” he snickered for a moment before he quipped, “and probably a chat with the pair over her intentions concerning their son. Gaara practically begged Mom to let him spend the night with Lee, Mom agreed to let him go as long as he was back home by noon tomorrow. That's when Mom suggested that I accept the offer to dine with Hinata's clan tonight so I don't want to know what she wants to talk to Dad about.” At that statement he gave a very minute shudder as several possibilities ran through his mind and he tried desperately to ignore some of them because, although the three siblings were in agreement that their oblivious parents were cute when they were acting lovey-dovey, they really didn't need to know!

 

The dark cat chuckled at the way that his summoner had shivered but said, “who knows what your Mother wishes to discuss with your Father but I think you should be more concerned with just what Hinata-Chan's clan wishes to speak to you about!” Under his Kabuki paint Kankuro blanched as he realized that by agreeing to dinner he had also agreed to speak with Camilla Slytherin after said meal, he glanced over at his sensei as the cat commented wryly in an amused tone, “at least you won't suffer alone.”

 

Kankuro nodded absently as he recalled that Camilla had invited Naruto's uncle to the nights meal along with Baki so he at least wouldn't be the only Suna nin to be there, just the only one being interrogated. However, before the puppet user could reply to the cat the pair heard a soft voice say, “hello there, I've never seen you before but then I highly doubt that I have met all of Kankuro's summons either.” Both males looked up at her first word in time to see Hinata canting her head curiously as she stared at the cat that was on Kankuro's shoulder, she giggled lightly at the two pairs of wide eyes staring at her from their owners faces.

 

Kankuro laughed at the way the cat looked at him for directions before the puppeteer had said in a teasing tone, “well, introduce yourself, buddy, after all that's the best thing to do when meeting someone for the first time.” The cat huffed but obligingly jumped down off of Kankuro's shoulder and stalked over to Hinata, he sat down in front of her before he held out his right fore-paw for her to shake.

 

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Sasuke woke up the next day with a lazy yawn and a stretch under the covers, once all of her muscles had been unkinked the dark eyed teen relaxed boneless back against the pillows. She stared up at the ceiling as she contemplated the man lying in her bed next door, finally she rolled out of the bed to head downstairs to fetch herself as well as Akasuka breakfast along with a hangover cure for the stubborn idiot, According to a book written by Sasuke's mother, Kushina Uzumaki never suffered a hangover but her husband as well as her partner did so she had figured out a cure for it that didn't taste that bad. Thus while breakfast was cooking on the stove, Sasuke had mixed the herbal blend with it's liquid components before setting it to brew, while it was doing that the teen finished the meal by cooking several strips of bacon.

 

Once the tea was finished brewing, she strained the loose herbs out of the liquid before placing it in a ceramic carafe and putting said container on the tray with two plates, beside one plate was two glasses while the other only had a single glass next to it filled with orange juice. After all that was done Sasuke summoned a clone to go ahead of her to open the door to her room, it did as she bade, as she set the tray down on the table beside her bed she dismissed the clone as she stared down at the older ninja. Akasuka was curled up around her pillow, as she watched him the red haired man nuzzled at it happily and she pondered if he would even need the cure that she brewed but shrugged it off since the tea was still good despite being a cure for the common hangover or headache.

 

Sasuke shook her head absently as she leaned over to shake the Kazekage lightly as she called out in a soft voice, “Suka, it's morning and thus it's time for all good little Kages to wake up for breakfast, so up and at 'em.”

 

At that she heard a sleepy grumble from the curled up man before she heard him muttering, “really, just who decided that and why do we even bother doing what _they_ say anyway?” Sasuke grinned as she wondered just how many were aware that the Kage of Suna was not, repeat **not** , a morning person, he was more like a morning zombie before he had a cup of tea or coffee which ever one was closer at hand. In fact, unless he absolutely had to do something in the morning he had to be coaxed into leaving his nice comfy bed and considering that he was essentially on vacation right now he really didn't want to get out of the bed.

 

“Come on, 'Suka, I have breakfast right here,” she cajolled softly as she leaned over to pry the pillow from his arms so she could look him in the eye, “wouldn't you rather eat it before it gets all cold and yucky as your youngest son would say.” As she tugged it out of his arms the pillow revealed that the Kazekage had been pouting up at her, a grin curved her lips since with that expression he looked just like both of his sons when they didn't get their way. His mint green eyes were sleepy with a hint of affection in them as she grinned down at him, he reluctantly allowed her to pull him into a sitting position, as she did she thought to herself, _'I do like it much better when he's happy compared to when he's angry. His eyes become like cold pale jade with the same iciness to them as a glacier, when they look like that they can make you feel as if you're freezing into a block of ice,'_ there had only been one time that Akasuka had turned that stare onto Sasuke and that had been by complete accident.

 

Sasuke had accidentally gotten between him and the real target of his rage, as soon as Akasuka had realized that he had been glaring at the teen he had stopped immediately before apologizing to her, the incident had taken place in Suna shortly before Team Seven had left. Gaara, Temari and Kankuro had inherited their fathers icy stare, unknown to Sasuke the Uchiha could have the exact same cold glare but hers was filled with disdain or annoyance. In fact all five of them had glared at the Haruno family once and were asked not to do so again if they could help it by the Hokage himself since they had added Killing Intent to the glares without meaning to. Sakura's former family had fainted, along with quite a few other civillans that had been unfortunate to be standing near them, all five had prompty issued apologies to those affected by the glares, everyone that is except for the Haruno family.

 

Several traders had come during the weeks preceding the Chuunin exam and they asked around about the two that weren't apologized to, when they were told about Sakura's disownment as well as the subsequent adoption by both the Uchiha and the Uzumaki clans they were shocked. The traders were even more shocked when they found out that the reason behind the disownment was the adoptions and they all thought that the Haruno's were extremely foolish for doing that when they could have risen in rank along with their daughter for being allied with both clans. When they had left Konoha the traders resolved to spread the news far and wide, a fact that would cause the Haruno's to lose quite a bit of standing outside of the village along with more than a bit of business deals.

 

Sasuke was drawn out of her thoughts by Akasuka snagging the cup of tea off of the tray, as he drank it he hummed lightly in delight over the taste of it, from what the Uchiha could tell the Kazekage didn't have a hangover but he appreciated the caffeine fro the tea just the same. After the tea had been drunk, the red haired man turned in attention to the plate of food, as he ate he eyed her with wary caution, he had recalled the dream he had last night but since Sasuke was brought him breakfast he had the funny thought that it hadn't been a dream after all. His suspicion was confirmed when Sasuke had merely moved the tray, still full of dishes, to her desk before returning to the bed and after getting comfortable on the end of the bed, she stared him in the eye with a raised eyebrow as she said, “it's time to explain a few things to me, Akasuka- _ **kun**_.”

 

He froze in place before he casually asked as he leaned back against the headboard, “like what, 'Sasu-Chan,” his gaze flicked to the side before he glanced up at her.

 

Instead of getting angry at his evasiveness Sasuke was amused by how he tried to get out of answering her inquiry, she reached out and gripped his chin to force him to look her in the eye before she clarified, “I want to know just what you meant by the statement that you were pathetic for falling in love with a thirteen year old.” She paused briefly, as she had spoken a look of horror had flashed across his face closely followed by a look of intense shame, neither of which Sasuke liked so she continued by saying, “not that I hadn't suspected that you felt more than a mere friendship or fondness for me but it was nice to know for sure that you felt the same as I.” With that statement he gave her an odd look as if he couldn't believe what she just said and a smug smile tugged at her lips as she tapped him on the nose before she said, “they way that you dote on me along with how protective of me that you can be were pretty big signs that I mean something to you.”

 

He watched as she ticked off points on her fingers as she spoke, “you allow me liberties with not only you, your children but also your office that if anyone else attempted them whoever that tried would be wishing they were dead, I can boss you around and only get a bemused glance from you before you follow my orders, not to mention the looks you give me when you think I'm not looking.” She stared him down as she said softly while she caressed his cheek, “you look at me as if I'm water in the desert, as if I'm the center of your universe and without me you would be lost,” his eye widened in shock at that but she carried on, “Sakura said that you stare at me as if I'm a priceless treasure that might disappear if you dare to glance away for a second.” Her eyes softened as she smiled gently at him before she said equally as soft, “but you never seem to see that I do the same, you are precious to me,” her eyes gained a glint of humor as she said playfully, “after all it's not just our children that I adore beyond all reason and sanity. You somehow snuck into my heart when I wasn't looking, 'Suka, and I'm afraid that I rather don't want you to leave,” he stared up at her with wide disbelieving eyes as she said while leaning toward him, “I love you dearly, Akasuka no Sabaku, you not the Kage of Suna but just Akasuka.”

 

Without even thinking about it, Akasuka pulled her into his lap and ran his fingers through her hair, even his deceased wife had only seen the Kazekage so for Sasuke to state that the Uchiha loved him for himself first and the Kage second was a shock to his system. He then murmured in her ear softly, “I never expected to fall for you at all, Sasuke-Chan, I fully expected to die an early death by either the hand of my youngest son or by an assassin. But then there you were,” he couldn't help his smile as he said, “barging into my life, giving me back my children along with the respect of my village and Daimyo. You forced me to see that I didn't have to die alone, nor did I have to die young, you gave me the light I needed to see that I was still alive and I should start acting like it instead of acting as if I was already dead. So really,” he glanced down at her with sparkling mint green eyes as he said, “how could I not fall for you as hard as I did,” she stared back up at him with shocked black eyes.

 

The question was clearly rhetorical since he continued by saying, “I love you for many of your traits of which the Sharingan is not one of them, I would have lived the rest of my life content as long as I had your friendship to call mine.” He caressed her left cheek as he smiled wryly, “I certainly never hoped that you might love me just as much as I loved you but my heart can't help but be glad that you do.” To her surprise he kissed her lightly on her right cheek before he said in a unyielding tone, “however, as much as I love you, I refuse to break a law that I made to protect children your age from being preyed upon.”

 

At her confused expression he sighed before he clarified what he meant, “I don't know about Konoha but Suna law prevents any Shinobi until the age of fifteen from taking a lover more than two years their senior or one year their junior. If any adult over the age of twenty takes a Shinobi as a lover under the age of sixteen then that adult is interrogated throughly and if the relationship is found to be harmful or manipulative, depending upon whether or not sexual intercourse took place, the adult is either executed or permanently castrated.” She stared up at him when he smirked wryly before he said, “the adult gets to choose their punishment, if they choose to be castrated over being executed then they are banished to a patrol garrison where they will be closely monitored by the leader of the garrison.”

 

Akasuka continued to explain the law as she boggled at him, “however the law also protects the relationship as long as it is not manipulative or harmful to either partner and as long as proper protocal is followed, most of my village realized long before I did that I was falling for you. As long as our relationship stays platonic until you are fifteen then I will only have to submit to an interrogation by our villages when you turn that age, a periodic questioning of you concerning our relationship will be demanded by our villages only if we enter into a contract.”

 

She raised an eyebrow at that and questioned him softly, “a contract, what kind of a contract,” she tilted her head to the side as she had spoken, looking very much like one of her summons when they were trying to figure some puzzle out.

 

Akasuka sighed but started to explain as he continued to run his fingers through her hair, “the contract could be a betrothal contract or simply a written agreement between the pair concerning rules of their relationship. The written agreement is usually the one that most people use as it's far less binding than a marriage contract however the betrothal contract offers the most protection since it shows that the elder of the pair wishes that the relationship end in marriage. Due to that only the most serious of couples use that options others who aren't so sure that the relationship should or will end in marriage opt to use the jointly written agreement.”

 

She felt him shrug as he stated in a soft tone, “I would prefer the marriage contract since I truly can't see any relationship between us not ending in marriage. However I will abide by whichever one that you decide upon, my dearest Hawk,” she blinked at that but carefully thought over her two options.

 

Finally she glanced up at him through her bangs as she played with the collar of her shirt before she asked carefully, “is the betrothal contract safer for you,” he nodded in response to her question so she asked, “will I be able to sign the contract on my own or will a guardian have to sign for me?”

 

“You can sign it yourself and the contract still be binding since you are a Genin however if another relative, adult or Shinobi rank, signs it as a witness it ensures that you didn't sign it under duress,” he finally stated after thinking it over.

 

Sasuke blinked at that before she said with a smug smirk, “so I can get both Naruto and Uncle Kimi to sign it as witnesses to make it even more binding since it would signal that I was signing it of my own free will.” When he nodded again she grinned up at him before she leaned her forehead against his and purred while she gripped his shoulders tightly through his shirt, “well, in that case...lets get engaged, 'Suka!” He gaped up at her when she said that so cheerfully, she finally rolled her dark eyes and lightly tapped him on the side of his head as she said in exasperation, “I can't see our relationship ending with anything but marriage either and since my Oiroke form is fertile I can bear children myself.” She then muttered under her breath, “I'd have to bear all of my children myself anyway if I want them to have the active Sharingan, blast the matriarchal line of the Uchiha!”

 

**####################################################################################**

 

James watched in amusement as his youngest son cycled through various eye and hair color combinations as Albus bounced the boy on his right knee, he realized that Albus had doted on Kushina like this when she had been the same age as her brother. Idly he wondered if Hiruzen had doted on his daughters son like Albus did her brother or if he had been more distant from the boy than that. Certain that his son was in safe hands James walked away to go find his eldest child, as well as first born in both of his lives, he wanted to watch a few more memories that she had about her son's expliots as well as her own childhood in Japan.

 

He found her sparring with Kenpachi, well at first it looked like they were sparring but then James realized that Kushina was teaching the tall Captain a few new moves for him to use. The hazel eyed man recognized some of them as ones that Kimiko often used when she fought with a sword instead of her scythe, after she had him run through the set again Kushina fought him with a faster pace to see if he had caught on or not. Thankfully he did seem to have a good grip on the moves or he would have ended up with a deep gash on his chest from one of her scythes. When she finally noticed hr father standing in the doorway, the pair were sparring on the pitch again instead of the Room of Requirement, Kushina grinned up at him as she called out cheerfully, “can I do something for you, Dad,” as she had spoken she had shoved Kenpachi back with a kick to his stomach.

 

James laughed at the ease in which she sparred with the scarred captain before he said in a tone that carried on the wind, “I was wondering if you had some more memories of Naruto that you wouldn't mind sharing.”

 

Kushina's grin got even bigger as she called up to him, “I have more memories than you have time, Dad, after all Kurama was more than happy to sow me just what Naruto got up to in his childhood!” With that she waved goodbye to Kenpachi and walked off with her father to watch some of the pranks that Naruto puled before she started visiting him so often.

 

Kenpachi shook his head over his sparring partners antics before he sheathed his sword and walked off to go find his Fiancee, he found his brown eyed girl lying on her stomach near the lake reading a book. When his shadow fell on the book she glanced upward and a grin overtook her face when she saw that it was him, she then gestured for him to sit by her which he promptly did. He kissed her hello before he asked her with a raised eyebrow, “what are you reading or should I even dare ask lest I receive a lecture about said subject...”

 

She rolled her eyes at that comment before she slapped his right shoulder as she said, “if you must know, I'm reading a book on Ancient Egyptian gods such as Thoth, Sekhmet and Sobek,” her eyes gleamed as she said, “it's pretty interesting actually. You're Zanpakuto really suits you since one of the myths about her includes how she tried to kill all of humanity but was stopped by the other gods dying some beer red which she promptly drank thinking it was blood.” He snorted a laugh but listened as she statd with her eyes dancing, “she became drunk of course and by the time she had sobered up she had forgotten all about killing mankind so as you can imagine, all of her celebrations are rather drunken affairs since everyone drinks red beer in her honor.”

 

She looked so proud of herself for finding out that tidbit of information, so much so that Kenpachi had to laugh over her smug satisfied expression, after he calmed his laughter he asked, “did you find anything about Anubis?”

 

She grinned up at him as she chirped, “loads, as you are no doubt aware by now, Anubis is the Egyptian god of embalming as well as the Protector of the Dead according to some sources, however according to one manuscript that Kushina brought back from Egypt he was also a trickster god but he was hardly ever depicted as such in mythology. This is due to the fact that he was mostly evoked by the embalming priests and when a mummy was laid to rest his name would be evoked to protect the tomb of the deceased,” she was bouncing in place as she lectured her fiance.

 

“Thoth on the other hand was depicted either as a baboon or as an ibis, he was known as the Egyptian god of learning and is credited as the god who invented language,” Kenpachi snorted at that and she grinned up at him with her brown eyes glinting in amusement. “Yeah, he does suit me quite well doesn't he,” she quipped with a grin before she said, “after all I do adore learning and he's the god of it as well as being known as the 'Herald of the rising sun.'” Kenpachi listened as she continued to ramble on about the gods and goddesses for whom their Zanpakuto was named for, as he did he leaned back against the grass and closed his eyes.

 

**####################################################################################**

 

Baki glared at the chipper red haired man across from him, his head was still pounding while it seemed that Kimihiro was like Akasuka and didn't get hangovers at all, ' _the lucky devil,'_ Baki thought venomously as he glared at the older man. Kimihiro set a cup down in front of the beleaguered Jounin with a soft smile and a softly spoken, “here, this should help, Kushina swore up and down that it worked for her husbands hangovers.”

 

Baki turned his glare from the older man to the cup but if the fourth Hokage used it than he would at least give it a try, he sipped the hot drink and to his surprise it actually didn't taste that bad. Inbetween sips Baki said, “Akasuka doesn't get hangovers either but he's not a morning person even when he didn't drink the night before, so at the moment...,” he glared at the still chipper man, “I like him better than you!” Kimihiro just smiled at him as he set a plate full of eggs, toast and bacon down in front of him, Baki glanced down at the plate for a moment before he glanced back up at Kimihiro as he said, “okay, now I like you better.”

 

Kimihiro laughed at that but fixed himself a plate, he sat down across from the thirty one year old and started eating, Baki had dug into his own meal while Kimihiro fixed his plate. Every-time that Baki's cup became empty Kimihiro refilled it from a carafe on the table, once the pair of them had eaten their fill the older man took the plates and washed them rather than placing them in the sink to be washed later. As he washed the dishes the older man asked idly, “so how long has Akasuka been Kazekage of Suna,” Baki goggled at him since he could have sworn that no one was aware of that fact, Kimihiro glanced over his shoulder and laughed at the expression on Baki's face before he teasingly said, “surely you don't think that I hadn't figured it out. Although I may never have met him in his official capacity but I do remember that the Jinchuuriki of Suna was the Kazekage's youngest child,” he rolled his eyes at how the rest of the Konoha people hadn't seemed to figured out such a simple fact. He then hummed thoughtfully before he leveled a stare at Baki as he said, “mind you, Uzumaki's can always tell if someone is a Jinchuuriki if they have been trained to do so even if that person is completely unaware that they are a Jinchuuriki, but Gaara let it slip that Naruto fixed his seal when Team Seven was in Suna.”

 

Baki snorted at that before he leaned back in his seat as he said, “Akasuka has been the Kazekage for about years now, he was made Kazekage five years before Temari was born.” He gained a sneer as he muttered quietly, “the Suna council arranged a marriage for him about two years after he became Kage,” he shook his head at that as he continued, “which was stupid of them since no one in Suna thinks fondly of her after what she did to Gaara-Chan...” When he saw the puzzled glance that Kimihiro gave him the Suna Jounin grimly explained, “she's the one who had Chiyo seal the one tail inside of Gaara, she planned to use Gaara to kill his father then use him as the figurehead so she could rule Suna.”

 

Baki rolled his eyes at that thought before he muttered, “she was an idiot for thinking that it would work since as a civilian she wouldn't be able to be on the Kage's advisory council. Not to mention that Gaara was largely untrained until he became a Genin and that was with him living with his maternal uncle as his guard so how she thought that Gaara would be able to kill his father is beyond me. After all Akasuka is no pushover, he was the only partner that Akasuna no Sasori accreted until Sasori left Suna for good,” Baki smirked at Kimihiro as he said smugly, “Akasuka rescinded Sasori's missing nin status as soon as he was promoted to Kazekage. If Sasori ever wished to he could return to Suna at anytime, his status is much the same as your Tsunade Senju's, wandering but not considered to be a traitor despite her leaving Konoha in her grief.”

 

Kimihiro nodded at that as he said softly, “yes, my cousin is still grieving the loss of her fiance and I have the feeling that it will take something quite drastic to bring her home to stay.”

 

“I keep forgetting that she's your cousin,” Baki said as he stared over at him in shock.

 

Kimihiro snorted as he puttered around the kitchen, he had long since moved into his own house from his grandparents house, putting away the dishes before he said over his shoulder at the other man, “I think that if she hadn't of been the one to find him dying then she would be so grief stricken. However, she did find him,” he shook his head at that as he said thoughtfully, “at least she took his baby sister with her when she left or I would be a lot more worried about her than I am.”

 

**####################################################################################**

 

While Kimihiro and Baki were talking, Deidara was surprised when Sasori sneezed several times in a row quite suddenly, as she stared at him in shock, the blond was unaware that Sasori was still capable of such involuntary reactions and from the look on his face neither was Sasori. The puppeteer rubbed his nose in consternation but shrugged the rather unexpected involuntary reflex off as an oddity and proceeded to ignore it, unless it happened again of course.

 

Meanwhile, about eight days travel from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Tsunade suddenly was overcome with a bout of sneezes both of her human companions stared at her in bemusement. Tonton stared at her in concern, “are you alright, Tsunade-Hime,” asked the disguised Hatake as he continued to stare at her in vague amusement.

 

She rubbed her nose with an annoyed expression as she said, “yeah, I think someone as just talking about me is all,” she rolled her eyes as she had spoken.

 

Shizune giggled lightly as she craddled the piglet before she quipped, “as Dan-Nisan would have no doubt said, ' _you're beautiful, Tsunade-Chan, of course people are going to be talking about you!'_ He would have kept going for hours on end about just why people would be talking about you, Master,” at that she giggled again while Tsunade glared at her apprentice.

 

Sakumo laughed at the pairs antics, he was unaware that Tsunade was being more playful than she had been in years. Shizune was surprised by how much her master had changed since meeting up with Sakumo but she figured that Tsunade was happy that Sakumo could demand to know why his partners child wasn't being treated with respect that was accorded to him as her only child. Besides Sakumo's happiness was infectious even if neither woman could bring herself to tell him that his partner was dead and had been for twelve years now, even if they could bring themselves to tell him neither of them could figure out just how to start.

 

Really just how do you tell someone that while they were off playing spy their partner had become pregnant, had her child then had the demon she had carried for years torn from her and while trying to reseal said demon, was impaled by one of it's tails. Nope, neither of them knew just how to start that kind of a conversation with someone who had held his partner so dear to his heart, which it was quite obvious that Sakumo adored his partner as much as she adored him. Kushina had nearly gone insane with the Haze when one of her enemies had insinuated that her partner had run out on her, everyone who had witnessed the resulting explosion feared her even more than before to everyone's surprise, including Tsunade's, it had taken Kakashi telling her to snap out of it to break her free of the Haze.

 

Most Uzumaki's who entered the Haze would only stop if someone they had marked told them to or if only someone they had marked as their was the very last person on the battlefield. Kakashi wasn't marked at all but she had treated him as if he was a member of her clan by blood which is what the mark tricked the Uzumaki in the midst of the Haze into thinking.

 

All of the members of the Uzumaki clan were told about how one time, it had only been the once, an entire group of the clan had entered the Haze at the same time and that had been quite the sight to see according to clan legend. In fact it was that one incident that caused the widespread terror and warnings that most held for an Uzumaki's temper as well as their abilities with seals. However the one secret of the clan that all Uzumaki's guarded carefully was that although most of the times that the clan entered the Haze were involuntary they could in fact enter it willingly. It took a considerable amount of will to do it but as long as they entered the Haze of their own free will then they could leave it when they wanted but if they entered it involuntarily then they had to be jolted out of it.

 

There were four, well five really but hardly anyone ever used the fifth option, ways to snap an Uzumaki from the Haze, the first being to simply knock the person in the Haze unconscious an action best taken by another Uzumaki but an Uchiha would do in a pinch. Option two was to get a person that the Uzumaki had marked as theirs to simply talk them down from their anger after the Uzumaki had taken out whatever that had caused them to enter the Haze. The third option was to clear the battlefield of everyone while the fourth was to simply wait until the Uzumaki fainted from either hunger or from thirst. The fifth option was only exercised when all other options failed or simply weren't possible, this was due to the fact that option five was to take a child, any age would do, but the younger the better, as long as they were upset or crying and place the child near the battle.

 

Uzumaki's were renowned for their protectie instincts, especially over children, in fact the first thing that all their enemies agreed upon was that they should leave any child related to the Uzumaki clan alone or risk the entire clans rage. If Naruto's clan had been alive then no one in Konoha could have shown that much disrespect to Kushina's only child, she had been the princess of Whirlpool after all and as such her son would have been treated like a prince.

 

Tsunade knew that although she was Naruto's cousin the council of Konoha disregarded her authority since she was a Senju by name not an Uzumaki, during her travels around the countries she had been looking for a relative. After all, according to Kushina, Kimihiro was running around the countries but no matter where she looked she hadn't been able to find him, she had never realized how good he was at blending in until she tried to find him. As the clan heir, Kimihiro had become Clan Head at his fathers death, if he came to Konoha he could give Naruto the protection afforded to all clan members as well as demand to know just why his sister's last wishes were not being followed.

 

Tsunade smirked at the thought of both Kimihiro and Sakumo demanding that the Konoha council follow Naruto's parents final wishes to the letter lest the pair withdraw their respective clans from the clan roaster of Konoha. As long as a clan was on the roster then their clan would be listed among the other villages as belonging exclusively to Konoha, if a clan took their name off of the roster then that opened them up to offers from other villages. The other villages would send envoys to the clan to see if they could sway the clan to move from Konoha to their village, Konoha would not risk having two such notable clans defecting. Especially since the Uchiha had followed the Uzumaki's lead in their actions since Madara Uchiha betrayed both clans as well as the village of Konoha.

 

Tsunade had left the village permanently after Naruto was three when the council once again denied her the right to raise her cousins son, despite how it would have kept her in the village. Thus she was completely unaware that the Uchiha clan was supposedly dead except for the two sons of the Clan Head, however she was correct with how if Naruto left then the Uchiha would leave with him. The ones that left with the Uzumaki would head straight for Suna to join it's ranks and Suna would gladly welcome them, actually they'd probably throw the biggest party that the desert had ever seen with the Kazekage planning most of the party himself since he'd be the happiest that they were coming to Suna.

 

A/N: Yes by that I do mean that Suna discovered how to brew Tequila, after all grain is far too precious to waste when cactus plants are so numerous. :cackles:

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P.S. Sorry that this is so late but RL is being a total female dog right now. I will try to get the next one out soon, it's already written I just have to type it but after that one I think I'll hold off on posting until I have after the 3rd Chuunin exam written and post them all at once so I don't leave you guys hanging. ^_\ :Sweatdrops: Oops, I also need to go over the rest of the chapters to smooth them out I just reread my own series and I noticed a few errors that I need to correct and update. Yeah, I'll get right on that! :runs from the room:


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